SPATHIPHYLLUM 



-n 



corroborated. It was originally described from a young plant growing in a 

 garden and flowering for the first time. If a type specimen was preserved by 

 Regel, it is probably in the herbarium at Leningrad. Xo specimens deposited at 

 Leningrad have been available for this study. 



Xo material other than from cultivated plants has been referred to this species 

 since its publication. Despite the lack of a type specimen, the available data and 

 the illustration which accompanies the original description characterize a species 

 very similar to the well-known plant of our conservatories and of plantsmen 

 known as 8. " clevelandii.' 1 



Certain small discrepancies may be noted between Kegel's description and 

 illustration of S. walUsii and the currently cultivated £. "clevelandii," especial- 

 ly in the spathe, which was described originally as oblong-elliptic. 8. "cleve- 

 landii" has a spoon-shaped spathe which is commonly ovate in outline, varying 

 to elliptic. The shape of the base and apex of its spathe agrees with the original 

 description of 8. wallisii, and other characteristics are similar enough that I feel 

 entirely justified in regarding 8. ' 1 clevelandii" as conspecific with 8. wallisii. 



Except for a few dried specimens borrowed from European herbaria, I have 

 no knowledge of what plant is currently offered in Europe under the name S. 

 wallisii. The treatment presented here is in agreement with X. E. Brown (Kew 

 specimens), and T. II. Everett and E. J. Alexander (Gard. Chron. Am. II. 48: 

 209. 1944). 



According to the records of the Bailey Ilortorium (fide G. II. M. Lawrence, 

 in personal correspondence), '*S. clevelandii originated in the American trade 

 with Julius Roehrs & Co., who offered it for the first time in 1935." The Hor- 

 torium has "no record of its appearance in European lists prior to 1936/' though 

 its records are incomplete for Germany. ' ' Spathiphyllum wallisii appears to have 

 first come into cultivation in Europe about 1936.'' 



Birdsey (Cult. Aroids 118. 1951) noted that Mr. R. G. Wilson of Miami had 

 grown from seed many plants of 8. ■'clevelandii*' which were quite uniform in 

 appearance. This statement lends support to the idea that it is a self-perpetuating 

 taxon, and probably a natural species. Yet Birdsey wrote that it is a putative 

 "hybrid produced by W. A. Manda in the time of President Cleveland." He 

 presented (op. cit. 119) an excellent photograph of 8. "clevelandii'' under the 

 name 8. kochii, rejecting the name 8. wallisii because of the small dimensions 

 given by Regel in the original description. 8. kochii differs from 8. wallisii 

 in its greater size and its proportionally broader leaf-blade which is obtuse at 

 the base. 



The narrow leaf-blade on a slender petiole together with the conic style of the 

 pistil easily differentiates S. wallisii from other species of this section. 



29. S. wendlandii Schott. Oesterr. Bot. Zeitschr. 8: 177. 1858. Figure 7. 



Leaf-blade oblanceolate to elliptic, 22-50 cm long and 9-17 (-21) cm wide, 

 the apex cuspidate, the base attenuate and decurrent onto the geniculum, the 

 primary lateral veins many, arising at an angle of 45-60°; petiole 18—45 (—60^ 

 cm long, vaginate below and often prominently alate throughout its length, the 

 wing continuous with the decurrent base of the leaf-blade ; geniculum 1.2-2 cm 

 long, alate, to 3 cm or more wide and marginally involute and crisped, or deeply 

 sulcate but not alate and the petiole nude in the upper 5-17 cm. Peduncle 

 (35-)45-82' cm long; spathe elliptic to oblong-oblanceolate, the apex attenuate- 

 aenminate, the base attenuate, decurrent on the peduncle 3-6 (-9) cm ; spadix 2.5- 



