PES Fy ee ye oa 
HYPOXIS ERECTA Lunn. 
A BIBLIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. 
THEO. HOLM. 
(WITH PLATE XI) 
SOME of the numerous synonyms which have arisen from the 
first to the second edition of Linnzus’ Species plantarum, and 
which have become a necessity to the systematic botanist to 
understand and recognize, appear at first glance to be rather sur- 
prising, and are well worth submitting to a closer investigation. 
The transferring of a generic name from one genus to another is 
not uncommon in the Linnean publications, but there seems to 
have been, at least in some cases, a good reason, if not excuse, 
for making a change of this kind. From a bibliographical point 
of view, it is often quite interesting and instructive to investigate 
some of these changes, and the writer has had in the present 
Case a certain inducement for trying to discover the reason 
which led Linnzus to describe our amaryllidaceous genus 
Hypoxis at first as an Ornithogalum. 
No critical or conscientious botanist should accuse Linnzus, 
however, of having overlooked so important a character as the 
position of the ovary, which is superior in Ornithogalum and 
inferior in Hypoxis. Linnzeus was too well acquainted with such 
primary characters, and it was due, therefore, not so much to his 
own defective observation as to the misleading descriptions of 
previous authors, whose works were. the only ones accessible to’ 
Linnaeus at the time when he wrote his first edition of the 
Species 
pecies plantarum. It is — ene oS to admit 
a di tit ‘ bet ween Li imnean 
oie ae eC Le Rt, ig Pa ee ea at AR YK er 
ean — of name is oe to fale The fact is that 
: pears in the first edition 
: —s was rejected by Linnceus wae 
113. : 
