528 ROBINSON. 



138 (1788). Lyonia ferruginea Nutt. Gen. i. 266 (1818), as to plant, 

 not as to name-bringing synonym. Xolisma fruticosa Nash, Bull. 

 Torr. Bot. Club, xxii. 153 (1895). 



The Status of Convolvulus africanus. The binomial Convol- 

 vulus africanu^ seems first to have been used by Choisy in DeCandoUe's 

 Prodromus, Lx. 342 and 418 (1845), where it is attributed to "Nick." 

 or "Nich.," said to have been published in "h. St. Dom.", and is 

 referred to the synonymy of Pharbitis cathartica (Poir.) Choisy. In 

 the Index Kewensis, i. 600 (1895), Convolvulus africanus Nickols, 

 Hort. St. Doming. 260, is referred to Ipomoea cathartica. This dis- 

 position of the species is also made by House in his North American 

 Species of the Genus Ipomoea, 205 (1908). Both on nomenclatorial 

 and geographic grounds the name Convolvulus africanus (1776) seemed 

 so strange a synonym for the much later and strictly x\merican Ipo- 

 moea cathartica (1816), that the writer made some search for the rare 

 work in which the name in question was originally published. This 

 proves to be an "Essai sur I'histoire naturelle de I'isle de Saint- 

 Domingue," published at Paris in 1776. The name of the author 

 does not appear on the title page, but toward the end of the volume, 

 on page 374, there is printed a note of "Approbation" by Adanson, 

 regarding the work itself, and in this note the name of the author, 

 P[ere] Nicolson, is mentioned. It may be noted that neither the title 

 of the work nor the spelling of the author's name is as given in the 

 Index Kewensis. 



On the page cited in the Index Kewensis (260) the only Convolvulus 

 is not C. africanus but C. americanus, a species treated as follows : 



"LiANE purgative. — Syn. Liane a medicine. Liane k Bauduit, Arepeea, 

 Car. Convolvulus Americanus. — 06s. Ses tiges sont grimpantes, cylindriques, 

 sans vrilles; elles s'entrelacent dans les branches des arbres voisins, s'y accro- 

 chent, & se replient ensuite vers la terre, y prennent racine, & forment de 

 nouvelles plantes. On en tire un sue r^sineux qui se coagule, & dont on se 

 sert pour purger. Un habitant du cul-de-sac nomm6 Bauduit, en fait un 

 syrop purgatif qui porte son nom. Quoiqu'il soit fort en usage parmi les habi- 

 [here begins page 261] tans du pays, il ne laisse pas d'etre dangereux, en ce 

 qu'il occasionne quelquefois des superpurgations. Ses feuilles sont taill^es 

 en coeur, un peu rudes, unies, sans dentelure. — Loc. EUe se trouve sur les 

 mornes dans les lieux humides. — Virt. EUe purge violement. 



Liane purgative du bord de la mer. — Syn Convolvulus marinus, Catharti- 

 cus, PI. Soldanella, Marcg. — 06s. Sa feuille est arrondie, bien nourrie. — 

 Loc. On ne la trouve que sur les c6tes de la mer. — Virt. EUe est purgative." 



