Takeda — Old World Species of the Genus Mahonia 



I. THE INDIAN SPECIES. 



Since 1855 when Sir J. D. Hooker and Dr. Thomson un- 

 hesitatingly united * all the Indian species published up to that 

 date together with M. japonica into a single species, Berberis 

 nepalensis,-\ almost all the later workers have indiscriminately 

 followed this opinion, especially with regard to the Indian species. 

 Seventeen years afterwards Hooker and Thomson themselves 

 recognised a variety Leschenaultii , which had been described 

 before as a distinct species. :£ This variety was again differentiated 

 from the type by Fedde,§ but has been entirely ignored by all 

 others, including the more recent observers such as Gagnepain || 

 and Schneider. 1} Thus there is only one species known as a 

 native of India, and this species is distributed over the whole of 

 the Himalayas, Nepal and Assam, and if the var. Leschenaultii is 

 treated as the same species, it also occurs in the Nilghiri. More- 

 over, some authors have recorded its occurrence even outside 

 India, namely, Malacca, Burma,** Java, ft China, J J Formosa,§§ 

 Philippine Islands,|||| etc. It is also often stated in literature that 

 certain other species are related to or are comparable with M. 

 napaulensis. It is therefore necessary to ascertain the real M. 

 napaulensis, DC. and this has been one of the writer's chief 

 objects in this paper. 



It has been found that the statements above referred to are 

 erroneous and that the true M. napaulensis has never been found 

 outside Nepal. It may also be noted here that the only speci- 

 mens of this species existing in herbaria are those collected by 

 Buchanan in 1802 and by Wallich in 1821 ; it has never been 

 gathered since except the fragments of a leaf which are repro- 

 duced in our plate. 



De Candolle distinguishes a var. Roxburghii Iffl which, as a 

 result of a careful examination of the co-type specimens, has 



* Hook, et Thorns. Fl. Indica, i 



f The oldest specific name giv. 



Later it is often spelled " nepalensi 



% Hooker, Fl. Brit. Ind. i, p. ic 



i, p. 31, 1886 ; Franch. PL Delav. i, p. 35, 1889. See also the introductory 

 remark on the Chinese species, p. 224. 



§§ Matsumura in Tokyo Bot. Mag. xii, p. 54, 1898 ; Matsum. et Hayata, 

 Enum. PL Formos., p. 18, 1906 ; Hayata, Fl. Mont. Formosae, p. 47. 1908. 

 UK Merrill in Phil. Journ. Sc. i, suppl., p. 190, 1906. 



Iffl DC. Prodr. i, p. 109, 1824. 



