&4 D. Prain — Some additional species of Convolvulaceae. [No. 2, 



9. Lettsomia peguensis Clarice, Flor. Brit. Ind., ir., 193 [1883]. L. 

 strigosa Boxh. Bort. Beng., 13 [1814] ex Wall, in Cat. Lith. sub. n. 1404 

 L. capitataMij., FZor. Ind. Bat., ii., 591 [1856]. Argyreia capitata Choisy, 

 DC. Prodr. ix. 332 [1845] (in part and excluding var. /S. conferta) ; Kurz, 

 For. Flor. Brit. Burma ii., 216 {chiefly). Convolvulus strigosus Wall, 

 Cat. 1365/2, 1365/C, 1865/E partly. Convolvulus barbiger Wall, Cat. 

 1404/1, 1404/2 in part only. Ai'gyreia barbigera Choisy, Convolv. Or. 

 42 and DC. Prodr. ix., 332 ; Brand. For. Flor. 343. 

 Add to localities of F. B. I. : — 



Malay Peninsula : Perak, common, Scortechini n. 1628 ! Kuustler 

 n. 2622 ! 8627 ! DLSxraB. Java. 



Much confusion has been caused owing to Dr. Wallich having in the first place 

 mixed in his distribution of Lettsomia strigosa {Cat. n. 1365) that species and L. 

 lyeguensis ; and again in his differentiation of L. peguensis {Cat. n. 1404i) having 

 included with it another species whose presence has helped to obscure the identity 

 of this. 



Wlien the somewhat tangled synonymy ia unravelled, we find that what 

 constitutes the Lettsomia strigosa of the F. B. I. is really without a name, 

 while the plant that Mr. Clarke has there for the first time satisfactorily differentiated 

 is already provided with two names in the genus Lettsomia. 



The name Lettsomia strigosa was in reality first applied to what is in the F. B. I. 

 named L. i^egueiisis, a plant which, at the time the name was applied to it by Rox- 

 burgh, was being cultivated in the Calcutta Garden from seed received from " the 

 Straits." But to re-transfer the name to that species now (though doubtless the 

 act will commend itself to pedantic purists in nomenclature) and to coin a 

 new name for L. strigosa as limited in the F. B. I , would — in view of the fact that 

 Roxburgh under the name has written a careful description which can only apply 

 to the " F. B. I." L. strigosa — be, in the writer's opinion, not only unnecessary but 

 reprehensible. The name L. strigosa is better kept for the original Convolvulus 

 capitatus of Vahl, even though we know that its first application was to L. peguensis. 

 The name L. capitata at all events is not available since that name was employed 

 by Miquel to designate precisely the plant that is not Vahl's Convolvxdus capitatus. At 

 the same time it does not seem necessary to replace the name L. peguensis by Miquel's 

 one of L. capitata, though it is older by nearly 30 years than Mr. Clarke's one and 

 though we know that it applies precisely to L. peguensis. For it has to be recollect- 

 ed that L. capitata Miq. is not the same as Convolvulus capitatus Vahl, and therefore 

 is not equivalent to Argyreia capitata Arn. — the name that will have to be applied to 

 Lettsomia strigosa ot the F. B. I. "when Lettsomia ia once more merged in Argyreia ; 

 and that though it is included in Argyreia capitata as that species has been under- 

 stood by Choisy and by Kurz, it is not equivalent to the species of these two authors. 

 When Lettsomia is again merged in Argyreia the Lettsomia peguensis of the 

 F. B. I. (L. strigosa, Boxh., Hort. Beng. not Flor. Ind.) must — as will be shown in 

 the writer's note on the next species — be known as Argyreia iarhigera Choisy. 



The further question whether these two plants az'e really specifically (they 

 certainly are at least varietally) distinct is one that cannot be raised here ; it can 

 only be properly discussed by a monographer of the combined genera, though it ia 

 the writer's opinion that they should be reunited. 



