48 



MEMOIR^ OF THE NEW YORK BOTANICAL GARDEN 



[VOL. 10 



Type collection : Engler 173 (Herb. No. 38) (lectotype P, isotypes B, G-BOIS, 

 G-DEL, GH, K, L, M, P, US). The type collection was made from plants 

 cultivated at the botanical garden of the University of Kiel. 



Distribution: Rainforests of the Caribbean coast west of Caracas. Venezuela, 

 and possibly in central Colombia. 



COLOMBIA: Caparrapj, Cundinamarca, Jun 1939, Garcia B. 7676 (COL) , 7689 (COL, 

 US) ; (?) La Balsa, Quindio Mts., ese of Cartago, El Vail©, 1844, Goudot s.n. (P). 



VENEZUELA: above Guamitas, Parque National, Aragua, Doc 1938, Alston 5812 (XV); 

 en selva pluvial a Barburata, Carabobo, Feb 1942, Vamaxjo 2211 (VEN) ; EI Hacha, Palc6n, 

 1906, Brown s.n. (K) ; Maracay, Aragua, 1928, Yogi 822, 823 (Mi. 



8. kochii was poorly understood until the present study. The name is nowhere 

 found in floras, and scarcely at all in the literature of cultivated plants. The 

 epithet was applied by Birdsey (Cult. Aroids 118. 1951) to the cultivated plant 

 (often known as S. "clevelandii") that T identify as 8. wallisii. 



Engler and Krause described 8. kochii to accomodate a plant growing in the 

 botanical garden at Berlin, under the name "S. lanceolatum C. Koch," speci- 

 mens 13 (Engler 173) of which had earlier been distributed to other herbaria 

 under that name. Comparison of those specimens with the type of 8. lanceolatum 

 revealed that they were not conspecific. Specimens of Engler 173 then became 

 the type of 8. kochii. 



Engler keyed out 8. kochii on the basis of its 4-2-ovulate locules, and its 

 crisped-undulate leaf -margins. This ovary characteristic is misleading, since there 

 exists but a single, aberrant specimen [Engler 173 (B)] with four ovules per 

 locule, and the flowers of that specimen were either two- or four-locular ! All other 

 specimens of Engler 173 have one or two ovules in each of the three locules. The 

 Berlin sheet is the only specimen of 8. kochii that bears its authors' annotation 

 label. It appears, however, that the plate of 8. kochii distributed by Engler was 

 prepared from the Paris sheet of Engler 173. This latter specimen best represents 

 the species, and is designated lectotype of 8. kochii. 



The original description names only tropical America as the native area 

 of this species. Until the present study, no collections from the wild had been 

 identified as S. kochii. Among the material examined is a distinct species from 

 coastal "Venezuela that agrees well with the type of 8. kochii. Two anomalous 

 collections from Columbia are tentatively referred here, and though they are 

 geographically disjunct from the Venezuelan representatives, they vary little 

 more than the specimens of Engler 173 that were presumably taken from plants 

 of identical origin. Related to this taxon is Goudot 1844, 1 * but this doubtfully 

 represents 8. kochii, and may prove to be an undeseribed species. This latter 

 specimen was never before annotated or cited. 



S. kochii is closely allied to 8. lanceaefoliiim, and there is some basis for 

 joining these under a single* specific epithet. In the absence of definitive ma- 

 terial of 8. lanceaefoliiim, it seems wise to recognize 8. kochii as an independent 

 species. It shows a tendency toward a broader leaf -blade ; the base of the blade is 



13 These specimens were later amplified by the addition of a plate illustrating S. kochii. 

 14 Not considered in preparation of the description of this species. 



