33 369 



title of liis paper: Plants etc. described by Martin Vahl. West is surely only to 

 be considered as the collector; as information to Vahl on collecting the plant he 

 wrote a short description of the plant and amongst other things gave it the very 

 appropriate designation cii pressoides which Vahl has also used as species-name, 

 after assuring himself that it had not been used earlier.') 



As emphasised by Mme. Weber van Bosse, no authentic specimen with Vahl's 

 own handwriting is to be found unfortunately in the collection of the Botanical 

 Museum in Copenhagen in which the herbarium of Vahl is incorporated, and in 

 contradiction to the indication of Mme. Weber van Bosse (p. 328) there is just as 

 little any specimen authenticated by West. On the other hand we have here two 

 specimens from Schumacher's herbarium and on one of these Schumacher has written: 

 C. cupressoides West, and on the other C. cnpressoides Vahl. The first mentioned 

 was collected by Ryan without any information of the locality, but Ryan, as 

 mentioned in Botanisk Tidsskrift, vol. 23, p. 44, collected plants in St. Croix so it 

 can very well originate from this island, the other is labelled St. Croix and was 

 most probably collected by West. These two specimens can with great certainty 

 be considered as the types for this species. Schumacher as mentioned by Joh. 

 Lange-) received duplicates from Vahl's herbarium and it very often happens now, 

 that a specimen which has been described by Vahl and of which no authentic 

 specimens are to be found in his herbarium is present in Schumacher's herbarium, 

 which is likewise incorporated in the Botanical Museum's collections. 



Caulerpa cupressoides is a very commonly distributed species on the shoi-es of 

 the Danish West Indies and occurs in very different localities with highly varying 

 external conditions of life; this can be clearly seen in the form the plant has in 

 a given locality. 



Caulerpa cupressoides is namely to be found in a great multitude of forms most 

 often mutually united to each other by imperceptibly transitional forms. From 

 time to time several of these forms have been described as separate species, which 

 were naturally often, especially in earlier times, founded on insufficient material, 

 so that a comparative examination was not possible. Mme. Weber van Bosse has 

 therefore the great merit of having given in her monograph a synoptic description 

 of this great multitude of forms; she has tried very conscientiously to distinguish 

 the one from the other, dividing them into a great number of varieties and forms. 

 Nevertheless, it is very often not at all an easy matter to refer a given specimen 

 to a certain form. From Danish West India I have brought home a rather large 

 material of this species and have naturally also tried to refer the collected speci- 

 mens to the varieties and forms of Mme. Weber van Bosse; but I may confess 

 that I have not always been successful ; very often it happens that one and the 

 same specimen seemingly might he referred with quite the same right to two, 



') Cfr. for the rest: Urban, Syinbolæ Antillanæ, Vol. I, 1898—1900, p. 175. 



'-) Johan Lange: Erindringer fra Universitetets botanislie Have ved Charlottenborg 1778 — 1874 (Bot. 

 Tidsskrift, 3. Række, 1. Bind, 1876, p. 53). 



1). K. 1). Videiisk Selsk. Skr., 7. Hiekke. nalurvidensk. i>^ niiitlicin. Aid. IV. 5. 4y 



