— 
The American Midland Naturalist 
PUBLISHED BI-MONTHLY BY THE UNIVERSITY 
OF NOTRE DAME, NOTRE DAME, INDIANA. 
VOL. Il. NOVEMBER, 1911. NO. 6.* 
BOX-ELDERS, REAL AND SO-CALLED. 
By J. A. NIEUWLAND. 
r 
The first author who applied a generic name to the group of 
pinnately compound leaved maple-like trees, called Box-Elders, 
was John Ray in 1688., He used the name Negwndo for this 
distinctively American tree, called by Linnaeus Acer Negundo, the 
only species known until the beginning of the nineteenth century, 
when in 1818, Nuttall described more or less completely our 
middle western species, under the name Negundo fraxinifolium. 
Ray in giving the name seems to have been well aware that it 
had been used also by Garcia ab Horto and Acosta.{ Other authors 
besides these who used the name Negundo before Ray’s time, 
and after his time for that matter also, reserved the name for a 
plant from the East Indies and Malabar, now called Vitex Negundo 
Linn., 1753. There must have been some botanists during or before 
the time of Ray who misapplied the name to the common Box- 
elders, or Ray himself because of his insufficient knowledge of 
both this and Acosta’s plant, judged or guessed the two to be 
the same. He describes the plant as follows: 
“Arbor exotica, foliis Fraxinit instar, et serratis, Negundo 
perperam credita.’’§ 
From what follows there can be little doubt as to the identity 
of Ray’s description with that of our common Box-elder. 
“ Folia quatenus observavimus in planta juniore, duabus pin- 
narum conjugationibus constant, folio |partiali] impari extremam 
costam quibus pinnae adnexae sunt terminante. Pinnae singulae 
{ Rati, J. Historia Plantarum, p. 1798, (1688). 
t Garcia ab Horto, Arom. et Simpl. ex Car. Clusio, 1593, (1st edition. 
1567. Chapter III]. Dr NEGUNDO. 
§ Raii, J. Historia Plantarum, p. 1798, (1688). 
* November, 1911, pages 129 to 152. 
