NOTE 
Theophrastaceae, a Family Wrongly Attributed to the Hawaiian Flora 
Benjamin C. Stone 1 
A curious error in the stated distribution of 
a family of flowering plants, the Theophrasta- 
ceae, is found in two leading American text- 
books of plant taxonomy, Lawrence’s "Taxon- 
omy of Vascular Plants" and Benson’s "Plant 
Classification,” both of which attribute the 
family to the Hawaiian as well as to the 
American tropical flora. Lawrence (1951:657) 
states (after the description of the family 
Theophrastaceae) : "A family of 4 genera and 
about 60 species of the American tropics and 
Hawaiian Islands.” Benson (1957:205) states: 
"The family consists of four genera occurring 
in the American Subtropics and Tropics and in 
Hawaii.’’ 
Since no representative of the family occurred 
anywhere in Hawaii as far as I knew, I made 
an attempt to track down the origin of such an 
attribution, which proved rather simple. Jac- 
quinia aurantiaca Ait. is credited to the Sand- 
wich Islands by DeCandolle (1824-1873) in 
the Prodromus (8:150), and is also listed in 
the Index of Hillebrand’s "Flora of the 
Hawaiian Islands’’ (1888); but on page 282 of 
that work is stated (in a short footnote after 
Embelia pacifica ) the phrase, "most probably 
erroneously.” Hillebrand continues: "It [i.e., 
]acquinia\ was supposed to have been collected 
by Menzies in 1796. The genus Jacquinia is 
entirely confined to America and easily to be 
1 School of Biological Sciences (Botany Unit), 
University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Manu- 
script received June 15, 1967. 
distinguished from Myrsine and Embelia by the 
monopetalous corolla, which is furnished at 
the sinuses with sterile staminodial appendages, 
in the manner of Sapota, the fruit being a berry 
with several small angular seeds.” 
The explanation evidently lies in the mis- 
labelling of a specimen of Jacquinia collected 
supposedly by Menzies and cited by DeCandolle. 
I have not seen this specimen but presumably 
it originated from some part of tropical Amer- 
ica; it is most improbable that DeCandolle 
could have mistaken any authentic Hawaiian 
plant for this genus. 
Intensive exploration of the Hawaiian Islands 
since Hillebrand’s day has failed to yield any 
member, or even possible relative, of the 
Theophrastaceae; so it seems clear that the 
range of the family is in fact exclusively 
American. No member of the family appears 
even in cultivation. 
REFERENCES 
Benson, L. 1957. Plant Classification. D. C. 
Heath, Boston. 688 pp. 
DeCandolle, A. 1824-1873. Prodromus Sys- 
tematis Naturalis Regni Vegetabilis. 17 vols. 
Paris. 
Hillebrand, W. 1888. Flora of the Hawaiian 
Islands. London and Heidelberg. 673 pp. 
Lawrence, G. H. M. 1951. Taxonomy of 
Vascular Plants. Macmillan Co., New York. 
823 pp. 
425 
