232 
PACIFIC SCIENCE, Vol. Ill, July, 1949 
spite of being rather diagrammatic and lacking 
accuracy in some details, must nevertheless be 
accepted as valid publication since it is a "plate 
with analyses,” which, according to the Inter- 
national Rules of Botanical Nomenclature, con- 
stitutes valid publication prior to 1908 (Art. 
44). In his Generalities, published in 1827 and 
occupying the first part of the volume on the 
botany of the voyage of the "Uranie,” he men- 
tioned three specific epithets. The first, melas- 
tomaefolia, he retained when he published the 
genus in 1830, but the second, pyrifolia, he evi- 
dently changed in favor of the third, ovata, be- 
fore he published the description. 
Meyen (1834-1835), in the section of his 
journal concerning his experiences in the Sand- 
wich Islands, described several new species, one 
of which was supposedly a new species of Ner- 
audia, N. glabra. He wrote that the natives 
called N. melastomae folia "marnaku,” which is 
essentially "mamake,” the name now applied to 
PipUirus spp. In his original description and 
again in 1843, when he transferred his species 
to the genus Boehmeria , Meyen described the 
leaf margins as crenate. This is particularly sig- 
nificant in that there are no collections of 
Neraudia which show such leaf margins and it 
is very likely that Meyen did not have a Nerau- 
dia. For this reason, the name is here excluded 
(see discussion accompanying N. melastomae- 
folia var. parvifolia for more complete explana- 
tion). Hooker and Arnott, who studied the 
plants brought back from the Beechey Voyage, 
in 1832 transferred the two known species of 
Neraudia to the genus Boehmeria, pointing out 
that in their opinion the two genera were in- 
distinguishable. 
Endlicher in 1837 and Steudel in 1841 trans- 
ferred the described species to Boehmeria. Wed- 
dell, however, in 1856 accepted the genus and 
recognized N. melastomae folia and N. sericea, 
giving the latter its first description. Neraudia 
ovata he reduced to /3-variety of N. melastomae- 
folia. 
Wawra in 1874 accepted N. melastomae folia 
and N. sericea without mention of N. ovata. 
He described a forma parvifolia of N. sericea 
with a question mark. The question mark 
would seem to indicate either that he was not 
sure what N. sericea was or that he was not I 
sure what rank his entity should have. It seems i 
that he did not know to what the name, N. 
sericea, should be applied as he used it for a 
group occurring on Kauai (N. kauaiensis). The 
form which he described was later recognized 
by Hillebrand with a change of status and it is 
herein accepted. Word has recently been re- 
ceived from the director of the herbarium at 
Vienna, where Wawra’s and Meyen’s material 
was preserved, that the section of the herbarium 
including the Urticaceae was destroyed by fire 
during the recent war, so it is unlikely that 
their material will ever be available for study. 
Furthermore, in 1935 neither St. John nor the 
director of the herbarium was able to find the 
specimen which Wawra had used as a basis for 
his forma parvifolia. 
Bentham and Hooker in 1880 accepted the 
genus and remarked simply that two or three ' 
groups occurred in the Sandwich Islands. 
Hillebrand in 1888 accepted Gaudichaud’s 
N. melastomaefolia listing N. ovata, N. glabra, 
Boehmeria melastomaefolia, and B. glabra as 
synonyms. The name Neraudia sericea, he used 
incorrectly, applying it to a variety of N. mela- 
stomaefolia. He then described a new variety 
of N. melastomaefolia, var. Kauaiensis, and 
transferred Wawra’s forma parvifolia of N. seri- 
cea to N. melastomaefolia, raising it to varietal 
status. On the basis of a scrap of material col- 
lected by John Lydgate on the island of Ka- 
hoolawe, and of which no one has seen material 
since, he described a new species, Neraudia 
Kahoolawensis. Engler in 1893 accepted the 
genus noting "2-3 Arten auf den Sandwich- 
Inseln.” 
In 1944 Skottsberg described forma truncata 
of N. melastomaefolia based on Selling 3363 
from the Waianae Range of Oahu. This name 
is treated here as a synonym of N. melastomae- 
folia var. parvifolia. 
