ciently to justify treating it as a distinct variety within E. 
novogranatense. 
Disjunct populations of Trujillo coca have recently been dis- 
covered in northwestern Ecuador and adjacent Colombia, where 
it is occasionally grown as a medicinal dooryard plant. These 
populations are of great interest because of their geographical 
isolation from plants in coastal Peru and because of their prox- 
imity to areas where typical Colombian coca is grown. Further- 
more, they are growing in wet, montane habitat which 1s 
ecologically very different from the arid Peruvian coast. Contin- 
uing efforts by police authorities to annihilate coca in Ecuador 
now threaten these last remnant populations with extinction 
before they can be fully studied and before their possible role in 
the evolutionary history of coca can be properly assessed. 
In 1972, Machado, in his treatment of the Peruvian species of 
Erythroxylum, attempted to reduce Rusby’s E. truxillense to a 
variety of E. novogranatense, making the new combination E. 
novogranatense var. truxillense. Lamentably, this combination 
was not validly published, a fact which I overlooked in previous 
publications (Holmstedt et al., 1977; Plowman et al., 1978; 
Plowman, 1979a). Article 33.2 of the International Code of 
Botanical Nomenclature (Stafleu et al., 1978) plainly states that 
new combinations made on or after Jan. 1, 1953, must be 
accompanied by clear indication of the basionym (in this case, E. 
truxillense Rusby) and a full and direct reference given to its 
author and the original publication with page or plate reference 
and date. Machado (1972) neglected to include either the basio- 
nym or the original reference to Rusby’s publication. 
I would therefore like to validate the combination Erythroxy- 
lum novogranatense var. truxillense here. | also append a new 
description of the variety and designation of the lectotype. It 
should also be noted that Machado’s new species Erythroxylum 
Hardinii, published in 1969, is placed in synonymy with EF. novo- 
granatense var. truxillense on the basis of its morphology, leaf 
venation and anatomy. 
Erythroxylum novogranatense var. truxillense (Rusby) Plow- 
man, comb. nov. 
56 
