130 AMERICAN MIDLAND NATURALIST 
Fraxinearum magnitudine aut ampliores, in acutos mucrones exeunt, 
dentibusque, marginibus et etiam mucronibus inordinatis obiter 
incisae sunt, summa praesertim parte. Folvum impar quod dicimus, 
extremam costam terminans ab angusto principio sensim dilatatur 
ultro mediam partem. E. Virginia (ni fallor) delata fuit. An arbor 
haec Garciae et Acostae Negundo sit nescrmus; folia ab eorum 
descriptiontbus ablundunt.”’ 
No other parts of the plant beside leaves and stem seem to 
have been observed by Ray, and owing to his want of knowledge 
of both this plant and that of Garcia and Acosta, he appeared 
unwilling to create a new name under the circumstances. 
Plukenet* had a more thorough knowledge of the plant, 
and in his Phytographia he gives three figures, one of a pinnate 
leaf with fine leaflets, a fertile flower branch, and also the fruit. 
His description and name show that he considered the tree as 
not generically distinct from the maples. 
Acer maximum foliis trifidis et quinquefidis, Virginianum. 
Negundo perperam dicta arbor, Virginiana. Hort Beawm., Ray. 
Hist. 
Hortus Beaumontianus,+ probably written by Francis Kig- 
gelaer, quotes the plant as introduced into Holland at least as 
early as 1690, and cites it as: “ Negundo perperam dicta, arbor 
Virginiana.’’ Boerhaavet also considered it as a maple and he 
simply repeats the references of Ray, Kiggelaer and Plukenet. 
In the Hortus Cliffortianus, Linnaeus$ has the plant in the 
genus Acer, and calls it “Acer foliis compositis.”’ In the Species 
Plantarum || of 1753, he added to this the words “‘ floribus racemosis,”’ 
and retains the trivial name Negundo, calling it Acer Negundo. 
From these references it may be deduced that no valid name 
deserving to designate the genus was given to the Box-elders 
as a group before the year 1753. The term Negundo was applied 
by Ray in a mistaken sense, and was a homonym, having pre- 
viously been used for Vitex Negundo on the basis of absolute 
priority. 
* Plukenet, L. Phytographia, Tab., 123, Figs. 4, 5. (1692). 
; [Kiggelaer, F.] Horti Beaumontiani Catalogus Plantarum exoti- 
carum, Hagae, (1690). 
+ Boerhaave, H. Index alter Plantarum, pt. 2, p. 234. (1727). 
§ Linnaeus, C., Hortus Cliffortianus, p. 144, (1737). 
|| Linnaeus, C., Species Plantarum, p. 1056, (1753). 
‘Cea 
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