Notes on ”De pkntis esculentis” ~ Merrill 
with exasperatingly short diagnoses consist- 
ing of but one or two to three or four (rarely 
five) lines. The introduction is dated at Vilna, 
Lithuania, June 30, 1786. It was published in 
Gottingen. Moreover, in the Prodromus, in 
almost every case where the same new species 
was involved, there was a reference to the 
binomial and to the page where it appeared 
in De plantis esculentis. This is proof that the 
latter work was printed before the Prodromus 
was published. Because the descriptions of 
new species appearing in De plantis esculentis 
are in general very ample, in contrast to the 
greatly abbreviated Prodromus diagnoses, I 
was naturally surprised to note that in bo- 
tanical literature nearly all references are to 
the Prodromus rather than to the earlier De 
plantis esculentis. 
The priority of issue of De plantis esculentis 
over the Prodromus is ’again proved by the 
reviews of both works appearing very shortly 
after the small volumes were published: In the 
Gottingische Anzeigen von gelehrten Sachen (vol- 
ume three for 1786, the September 25 number, 
pp. 1538-1542) there is an ample review of 
De plantis esculentis (the Berlin issue, not the 
original thesis), while the Prodromus has an 
equally ample review in the November 13 
number (pp. 1816-1820). This is a spread of 
over IV 2 months. The net result of these in- 
vestigations is a series of corrections to the 
entries in Index Kewensis, in which the refer- 
ences are to the Prodromus. One striking thing 
indicating the unfinished character of the 
Prodromus is that, among approximately 75 
vascular cryptogams so briefly diagnosed as 
to be scarcely described, more than 30 of the 
new species are not even localized; and the 
vast region from which the specimens came 
extends from Easter Island and the Marquesas 
to Tahiti, the Friendly Islands, New Zealand, 
New Caledonia, and the New Hebrides. The 
real importance is that the Prodromus entries 
are merely one- to three-, rarely four- to five- 
line diagnoses, whereas the earlier published 
descriptions in De plantis esculentis are, for the 
most part, in great detail. 
37 
In the following lists, the dagger (f) pre- 
ceding a specific name indicates a correction 
to the Index Kewensis entries and the asterisk 
(*) an unlisted binomial. 
Areca fsapida Soland. ex Forst. f., PL Es- 
culent. 66, 1786, Prodr. 94, 1786. New 
Zealand. = Rhopalostylis sapida (Soland ex 
Forst. f.) Wendl. & Drude. The data apper- 
taining to this New Zealand species in the 
first reference are notes rather than a tech- 
nical description; the second entry is a 
nomen nudum. 
Avicennia fresinifera Forst. f., PL Esculent. 
72, 1786, Prodr. 45, 1786. New Zealand. 
This is currently but erroneously reduced 
by most workers to A. officinalis L., a spe- 
cies with flowers 10 to 15 mm. in diameter, 
its type from Ceylon, and which is not 
known farther to the southeast than New 
Guinea. The New Zealand form with very 
much smaller flowers, 2.5 to 5 mm. in 
diameter, is A. marina (Forsk.) Vierh. var. 
resinifera (Forst. f.) Bakh. (BuL Jard. Bot. 
Buitenz. III. 3: 103, 210, pi. 16, 1921). 
Cocos *rubra Forst. f., PL Esculent. 67, 
1786, nom., nota, sub Areca sapida Soland. 
Tonga. = Cocos nucifera L. Forster f. merely 
stated: ”Huius forte generis [Areca] est 
Niu-gula, (Cocos rubra), Palma, cuius 
Cookius meminit in Tonga insula, itineris 
novissimi tomo I. p. 332.” The reference is 
to Cook’s account of his third voyage 
(1784: 332 ). His neeoogula, or red coconut, 
is mentioned as a kind of cabbage tree not 
distinguishable from the coconut, with an 
insipid tenacious kernel, the fruits scarcely 
2 inches long assuming a reddish cast when 
ripe. In spite of the indicated small size 
of the fruit, this is certainly a teratological 
form of Cocos nucifera L. 
Convolvulus fchrysorhizus (Soland.) ex 
Parkinson, Jour. 37, 1773, nom., nota; So- 
land. ex Forst. f., PL Esculent. 55, 1786, 
nom., nota ampL, Prodr. 89, 1786, nom. 
nud. = Ipomoea batatas (L.) Poir. In his 
long discussion Forster f. gave the range 
