Kew, published an article? in which he described another new 
variety of coca, Erythroxylum Coca var. novogranatense, which 
is the basionym of EF. novogranatense. In his article, Morris also 
discussed the relationships of other cultivated coca plants and 
remarked that specimens of Java coca “corresponded exactly” to 
herbarium specimens of coca at Kew collected by Richard 
Spruce on the Rio Negro in 18514. On the basis of this state- 
ment, Burck injudiciously chose the name “Spruceanum” for 
Java coca. 
The resemblance of Java coca to Spruce’s original collection, 
which I have studied at Kew, is entirely superficial. Morris’s 
identification was based merely on the variable characters of leaf 
shape and the lack of the characteristic parallel lines on the 
underside of the leaves. Spruce’s collection at Kew is labeled 
“No. 73, ‘Ipadu’, sitio on the Rio Janauri (affluent of the Rio 
Negro)”, and clearly represents Amazonian coca as delimited 
here. This herbarium specimen also serves as a voucher for the 
first of two samples of coca powder which Spruce sent to the 
Kew Museum (Spruce, 1853a). 
The holotype of Erythroxylum Coca var. Spruceanum Burck 
is a specimen preserved at the Herbarium Bogoriense in Bogor, 
Indonesia. Isotypes are found in the Institute for Systematic 
Botany in Utrecht, and at the Rijksherbarium in Leiden. All of 
these specimens belong to Erythroxylum novogranatense, and 
the name E. Coca var. Spruceanum is placed in synonymy with 
it. This identification agrees with the treatment of Payens who 
revised Erythroxylum for the Flora Malesiana in 1958. Even 
though Burck indirectly cited the Spruce collection as a para- 
type, this specimen must be excluded from the type material of 
E. Coca var. Spruceanum, since it belongs to a different species 
and does not conform to the type. 
I would here like to name Amazonian coca as Erythroxylum 
coca var. ipadu, after the widely used Brazilian name of the 
plant, and offer the following description: 
’Morris’ original article of 1889 was unsigned and was erroneously attributed by Burck 
and others to Dr. Thiselton Dyer, then Director at Kew. 
4Although Morris reported the date of Spruce’s coca collections as 1854, Spruce began 
his studies and collections of coca as early as 1851, as reported two years later ina letter 
to Sir William Hooker (Spruce, 1853b). 
48 
