6 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 87 



ent Venezuela, Colombia, and Ecuador were united in one political 

 unit, the Republic of Colombia; in 1831 these countries became sepa- 

 rate republics under the names Venezuela, Nueva Granada, and Ecua- 

 dor. The name Nueva Granada was changed in 1861 to that of the 

 United States of Colombia, and in 1886 to the Republic of Colombia. 

 The boundaries between the three countries, either as entities or as 

 parts of the early Republic of Colombia, have been substantially the 

 same as they are today. The name Colombia has never been properly 

 applied to Peru. In Lobb's time the three countries, Venezuela, Nueva 

 Granada, and Ecuador, were distinct, and it is doubtful if Lobb ever 

 used the term " Colombia," even for his New Granada collections. 

 However, there is every indication that botanical students, of the 

 present day as well as a hundred years ago, working far from the 

 field, have had a very hazy idea of the political divisions and the 

 geography of South America, and have used the names of the countries 

 with much laxity. Doubtless those who first examined the Lobb 

 mounted specimens wrote on the sheets indiscriminately " Peru " or 

 " Columbia." 



CITATIONS IX LITERATURE 



As a collector of plants for horticultural purposes, Lobb gave spe- 

 cial attention to such groups as Passiflora, Fuchsia, Tropaeolum, 

 Bomarea, and Thibaudieae, and it is in these groups that we find the 

 greatest number of Lobb collections cited. The following list contains 

 all citations of Lobb's specimens, including those in the lists men- 

 tioned above, that bear upon the questionable Colombian collections, 

 which so far have come to my attention. 



AMARYLLIDACEAE 

 Baker, Handbook Amaryllideae 1888 

 EUCHARIS GRANDIFLORA Planch. 



Page 1 10. "Andes of New Granada, Lobb! Jameson! Lehmann! 

 Andre! Introduced into cultivation in 1854 through M. Linden." 



Based originally upon a plant from the Choco, in northwestern 

 Colombia, the species ranges south through Ecuador to northern Peru. 

 Jameson collected only in Ecuador, Lehmann and Andre in both 

 Ecuador and Colombia. Most of the material in the National Her- 

 barium is from Ecuador. The Lobb specimens therefore may have 

 come from either Colombia or Ecuador. 



