Vol. II 



TORREYA 



January, igii 



THE FUNKIAS OR DAY-LILIES 



No. I 



By George V. Nash 



Many years ago, past the middle of the eighteenth century, 

 that indefatigable explorer and botanist, Thunberg, visited 

 Japan. During his travels in that then almost unknown country, 

 he found a perennial plant which was of frequent occurrence, 

 both wild and under cultivation. In those days of broadly 

 drawn generic lines, Thunberg without hesitation referred his 

 plant to the Linnaean genus Aletris, under the specific name of 

 japonica. Some years later, in 1784, he transferred this to the 

 genus Hemerocallis, perhaps a nearer approach to its true relation- 

 ship as understood today; but it was not until 1807 that the first 

 intimation was made that the group to which this plant belonged 

 might be the basis of a new genus, and the name of Saussurea 

 was very indefinitely proposed for it by Salisbury. The form 

 in which this proposition was made could not possibly be con- 

 sidered as publication under the rules of nomenclature of the 

 present day. In any event, it is not available, as the name 

 Saiissuria had been previously employed by Moench for an 

 entirely different group of plants. In 18 12 Trattinick proposed 

 the name of Hosta, ignoring the fact that Jacquin fifteen years 

 earlier had used it for a genus of the Verbenaceae. These 

 earlier names being disposed of the way is clear for the adop- 

 tion of the Niohe of Salisbury, published in the same year as Hosta, 

 and about which the question of priority might have been raised, 

 had not Trattinick's name proved a homonym. Salisbury ade- 

 quately published his name, it being based on Hemerocallis 

 japonica Ker. In spite of this, however, the name of Funkia, 

 under which these plants are generally known and which was not 

 published by Sprengel until 1817, is adopted in the Index Kew- 

 ensis. This arbitrary usage is perhaps responsible for the wide 

 [No. 12, Vol. 10, of ToRREYA, Comprising pp. 261-292, was issued 23 D 1910.] 



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