52 MEMOIRS OF THE NEW YORK BOTANICAL GARDEN 



caerulea in 1753. This species is commonly and correctly known 

 as U. reticulata Smith ; in the present treatment a Stomoisia. 



3. A plant collected in India by Koenig, and placed by Linnaeus 

 in his herbarium to represent U. caerulea. It is the only specimen 

 of U. caerulea in the Linnaean herbarium, but it was not collected 

 until long after 1753, so can not by any possibility be regarded 

 as the type of the species. It is entirely different from both of 

 the preceding, although belonging in Stomoisia as here defined. 

 When Oliver monographed the Indian species of Utricularia, in 

 1859, he deliberately selected this Linnaean herbarium specimen 

 as the type of U. caerulea. He knew^ that it was not the original 

 U. caerulea of 1753, but believed that it represented a species 

 otherwise nameless, so instead of proposing a new name he quite 

 unwarrantably limited the Linnaean name to the wrong plant, 

 and as " f/. caerulea L." the species has been known ever since; 

 owing, in part, to the weight of Oliver's "authority," and in part 

 to the fact that no critical monographer has since reviewed the 

 Indian species. The oldest name of this species, overlooked both by 

 Oliver and the " Index kewensis," is Utricularia parviflora Buchan- 

 an, published by Smith in 1808, in his remarks upon the three 

 plants confused by Linnaeus under U. caerulea, at the same time 

 that he published U. reticulata! Smith discussed the whole 

 problem fully and wisely, and solved it correctly; it remained 

 for one of his fellow-countrymen, 50 years later, to go over the 

 ground independently and come to an erroneous decision that 

 introduced a regrettable element of confusion, and has resulted 

 in the misinterpretation of the Linnaean name for another half 

 century. 



About 15 species of Pelidnia have been described, all from trop- 

 ical Asia and Australia; another, apparently not yet described or 

 named, occurs in tropical Africa. Most if not all of the species turn 

 blue-black in drying, and this has suggested the name Pelidnia, 

 from a Greek adjective signifying livid. Meionula of Rafinesque 

 was based upon U. minutissima Vahl, a doubtful species, probably 

 belonging to the genus Pelidnia as here defined, but it has seemed 

 better to gi\c the genus a new name than to use for it one of 

 doubtful ai)i)licability. 



7. Pleiochasia (Kam.) gen. nov. ( Utricularia § Pleiochasia 

 Kam. 1893.) Herbae scaposae terrestres, radicibus veris nullis. 



