285 



XXV.— THE GENUS PHELIPAEA. 



0. ST.\rF. 

 (With Plate.) 



The revision of this g-eniis, which includes some of the most 

 Lrilliantly coloured phanerogamic parasites of the Oriental flora, 

 was suggested by the flowering of one of its membera /'. foliata, 

 Lamb., in the rock garden at Kew in the summer of last year. It 

 has demonstrated the existence of at least three distinct species, 

 diagnoses of which are given below. At the same time the history 

 of the genus itself with its varying definitions and name changes 

 is remarkable enough to be put on record more fully than by the 

 mere references usually given under the headings "literature" 

 and " synonymy." Thanks to the courtesy of M. Gustavo 

 Beauverd, it has also been possible to account for those specimens 

 which were mentioned by Boissier in his Flora Orientalis, but 

 are not represented at Kew, and thus practically to complete 

 the enumeration of all the more important stations where Pheli- 

 faea has been found. 



genus. — The genus Phelipaca or Phelypaea 



the author himself spelt it both ways — was published by Tourne- 

 fort in his "Corollarium Institutionum Rei Ilerbariae (p. 47) 

 in 1703. It comprised two species, viz., " Phelipaea orientalis, 

 fiore coccineo'^ and " Phclijjaea lusitanica, flare luteo"; but 

 the description was drawn up and illustrated (tab. 479) from 

 the former only, so that "Phelipaea orientalis fiore coccineo'' 

 must be taken as the basis of Tournefort's genus. The author 

 does not indicate the country whence this Plwlipaea came, but 

 Desfoutaines, in Choix de PKantes du Corollaire de Tournefort 

 (1808) p. 18, states that it is a native of Armenia, and the excel- 

 lent figure published in the same volume from a drawing by 

 Aubriet, the artist who accompanied Tournefort on his journey 

 to the Levant, leaves no doubt that it is the species which has 

 since repeatedly been collected in the neighbourhood of Erzerum, 

 where Tournefort stayed and collected from June lo to July b, 

 1701, just the time when the plant would have been m flower. 

 The ])aragraph containing the dedication of the genus runs 

 '•'Phelypaea ab Illustiissima Phelypaeorum Geute, ex qua tot 

 prodiere Ecgni administri, quos inter mpime conspiciendi 

 summus ille Galliarum Cancellarius Ludovicus Phelypeaux et 

 Hieronymus Phelipcaux Rei Navalis Pracfectus, i"i^^!^^f ^ 

 Mvecenates, etc." The Phelipeaux-or more correctly, Ihely- 

 pe;iux*-wcre an old French family whichfor generations was 

 prominently connected with the legal profession and ga%-^ 1 ranee 

 more than one eminent administrator. One of them, Louis Phely- 

 peaux, Count de Pontchartrain (1G43-1727), was ^- }^^f^ 

 time Controlor General and Minister of Marine, and 8"^^ IbJJ 

 Secretary of State. He had charge of tlie Academies and in this 

 capacit/moved his sovereign, Louis XIY., to - send abroad into 

 fcreicrn Countries some Persons tliat were capable of makinir 



See Kouj^hTBull. Soc. B^Hw^vol. Ivi. (1909) p. 50. 



