454 



MEMOIRS OF THE NEW YORK BOTANICAL GARDEN 



[Vol. 8, No. 5 



1200 m., Sept. 20, . 1946, 17657*; ibid., in rain-forest, creeping herb, fruits red, 

 fleshy, 1200 m., Sept. 23, 1946, 17770*. Tropics of the Old and New Worlds; not 

 previously recorded from Nyasaland. 



Hitherto Geophila uniflora Hiern has been treated as a distinct species en- 

 demic to tropical Africa, but I am quite unable to see any reason for keeping it 

 apart from G. repens, which has a wide distribution in the tropics of the Old and 

 New Worlds. The alleged stipule-difference mentioned by K. Schumann (I.e.) as 

 separating the African plants from those elsewhere I am unable to confirm. 



The African plant is not always one-flowered as its epithet might imply, for 

 Brass 17657 shows a pair of fruits on one peduncle, and I have seen the same 

 thing on another African specimen. 



I. M. Johnston (I.e.) has pointed out that Rondeletia repens provides the ear- 

 liest epithet for this species. 



K. Schumann indirectly based his Geophila herbacea on P sychotria herbacea 

 L. (1762), without realising that Jacquin had published the same latter name two 

 years earlier. Linnaeus, however, although he knew of Jacquin's work (see the 

 bibliography at the start of that edition of the Species plantarum), does not men- 

 tion it under P. herbacea, and it was probably published too late to be used in 

 the main text. There is thus no evidence that P. herbacea L. was based on P. 

 herbacea Jacq., but rather on the reference to Patrick Browne, Hist. Jam. 161 

 (1756), whence also the epithet was very probably derived. Jacquin, however, 

 does not mention Patrick Browne under his P. herbacea, although he certainly 

 made use of his book, and the type of Jacquin's P. herbacea may be taken to be a 

 plant collected by Jacquin himself in the West Indies. P. herbacea L. and P. 

 herbacea Jacq. are thus based on different types, and although taxonomically they 

 are the same, nomenclaturally they are not. Geophila herbacea (L.) K. Schum. is 

 therefore based on a later homonym. The citation of G. herbacea (Jacq.) K. 

 Schum., used by Spencer Moore in Fawcett & Rendle, Fl. Jam. 7: 111 (1936), and 

 also by I. M. Johnston (I.e.), is not legally permissible, although, as happens not 

 infrequently in such circumstances, it makes a strong appeal to our reason and 

 common-sense. The earlier P. herbacea Jacq. could not be re-established under 

 Geophila since the result would be a later homonym of Geophila herbacea (L.) 

 Ko Schum. Names can thus kill one another and a bad name may make a good one 

 unusable. 



Geocardia has been proposed by Standley in Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 17: 445 

 (1914) as a substitute for Geophila D. Don (1885), non Berg. (1803). The well- 

 known name Geophila D. Don should if necessary certainly be conserved. 



I am very grateful to my colleague, Mr. H K. Airy-Shaw, for help over the no- 

 menclature of this species. 



Paederia foetens (Hiern) K Schum. in Engl. & Prantl, Nat. Pflanzenf. 4 4 : 125. 

 1891. 



Siphomeris foetens Hiern in Oliv. Fl. Trop. Afr. 3: 229. 1877. 



Kota-kota District: Nchisi, common on forest second-growths, vine 3-4 m. 

 high, foetid, flowers yellowish, native name (Chinyanja) ntuvituvi, 1100 m., Aug. 

 3, 1946, 17120. 



Galopina circaeoides Thunb. Diss. Acad. 1: 4. 1781. 



Zomba District: Zomba Plateau, several plants on an open bank in riverine 

 rain-forest, herb up to about 80 cm. high, stem solitary, ascending, flowers green, 

 1500 m., June 7, 1946, 16295. Previously known from S. Rhodesia and Portuguese 

 East Africa down to South Africa; rhew to Nyasaland. 



