377 



NouveUe-Grenadt " Tliis reference to New Granada 



or Colombia was evidently a slip of tlie pen, as is evident from 

 his observation that Linden had introduced it about ten years ago 

 (about 1863) and his reference to the establishment de la Muette 

 where we know from other evidence the South Brazilian plant- 

 had by then been in cultivation for several years. A coloured 

 - figure of a barren specimen of Gunnera manicata appeared in 



Illustration Horticole, xxx. (1884) 128, t. 531, and another 

 description of the species by J. G. Baker in the Gardeners' 

 Chronicle for the 3rd July 1886 (ser. iii. vol. xxvi. p. 8). So 

 . far all our knowledge was based on the plant introduced from the 

 Campos de Lages; but in 1890 Schwaeke published a paper on 

 G. manicata (in Engl. But. Jahrb. Bot. 28, pp. 1-3), in which 

 he amplified the earlier descriptions of the species from some 

 fruiting material collected by TJle in the Serra do Oratorio, 

 700-1200 in., and from notes and drawings received from Fritz 

 Miiller in Blumenau, Santa Catharina. The Serra do Oratorio 

 is part of the Serra do Mar, immediately soutli of the Serra de 

 Trombuda which Libon must have crossed on his way from the 

 •Rio Trombuda to Lages, if indeed he did not himself pass the 





f 



I 



Serra do Oratorio on his way back from Lages to Laguna. Thus 

 Libon's and Ule's localities are either identical or in very close 

 proximity. Where exactly Fritz Miiller made his observations 

 on G. manicata is not known, but his home being at Blum en au 

 the Serra do Mar was easily within his reach. It is therefore 

 evident that the area of G. manicata as known up to the date of 

 Schwaeke's paper, that is 1890, was limited to a portion of the 

 Serra do Mar of Santa Catharina, situated between TOO and 

 1200 m. This area possesses a typically mild-temperate climate 

 with occasional snowfall and frost during the winter and an 

 annual rainfall (1250-2000 mm.) very like that of Western Great 

 Britain, a fact which explains the perfect development of this 

 majestic herb in certain parts of this country. 



In Germany G. manicata is less at home; but fine speciinens 

 have been grown in the Botanic Garden of the University of 

 Erlangen, Bavaria. These provided the material for two valuable 

 papers on its .external and internal morphology, namely 

 Berekholtz's Beitriige zur "Kenntniss der Morphologic und 

 Anatomie von Gunnera manicata, Lind. (9 plat.) in Bibliotheca 

 Botaniea, v. Heft. 24 (1891), and Jonas, Vhex die Inflorescenz 

 und Bliite von Gunnera manicata, Lind., Jnaug. Diss. Erlangen 

 1892. Neither seems to have been consulted by the authors of 

 the monograph of the Halorrhagacece in the Pflanzenreieh. 



From the account given above it is clear that there is no basis 

 for a Colombian G. manicata as distinct from a Brazilian species 

 of the same name and consequently for the renaming and the 

 assumption of a tropical habitat for the latter. Thus G. bra- 

 s Hi en sis becomes a mere synonym of G. manicata which should 

 be attributed to Linden ex'Peh'hevalerie or Linden ex E. Andre. 

 This contention might appear to be challenged, by the treatment 

 which the two supposed species experienced in the key of the 

 species of Gunnera in Sehindler-Mez's monograph. There 



"G. 



m a 



species po 



nieata" (i.e. the Colombian plant) is grouped with the 

 osses-ing '" ramuli fructiferi gracillimi baud inerassati," 



