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PACIFIC SCIENCE, Vol. XIII, April, 1959 
blades 5.7-15.8 cm. long, 2.8-9. 1 cm. wide; 
spikes 2-6 cm. long, recurving and with 
pendent tips, and so villous that the flowers 
are almost concealed; bracts of the rhachis 
2-2.5 mm. long; floral bracts 2. 3-2. 7 mm. 
long; sepals 3-3.5 mm. long, obscurely sev- 
eral nerved, densely white villous except near 
the margin; anthers 0.5 mm. long, the cells 
joined. 
In Mann’s Enumeration (1867; 200) was 
also published Ptilotus Sandwicensis Gray ex 
Mann, var. Kavaknsis Gray ex Mann. Sherff 
has recently (1951: 16), following Hillebrand 
(1888: 373), taken up this as Nototrichium 
sandwicense var. kauaiense. In Hillebrand ’s time 
the rules of nomenclature were less precise 
and, as was customary, authors assumed the 
right to ''correct” the spelling of names of 
taxa, particularly those derived from geo- 
graphic place names. Hillebrand changed all 
previously published names like: maviensis, 
kavaknsis, owhyhensis, and wahtiensis to maukn- 
sis, kauaknsis, hawaiknsis, and oahuensis. The 
recent international codes of nomenclature 
(Amsterdam 1935, Stockholm 1950, and Paris 
1954) do not permit this free alteration of 
validly published scientific names (1954 code: 
art. 73). Unless it can be proved that the 
original author made a typographical error or 
a mistake in spelling, his scientific name must 
be retained as published. Once-current geo- 
graphic names are not now erroneous, even 
though a different spelling of the geographic 
name has been officially adopted and stand- 
ardized. In latinizing the Hawaiian name 
Kauai, Gray chose to render the letter u by 
the Latin v, and he had good precedent for 
this course. Hence, even though Sherff in his 
revision of the genus has adopted the spelling 
kauaknsts, one must in conformity with the 
rules return to the original spelling: Noto- 
trichium sandwicense var. kavaiense. It is given 
a neuter ending, because the varietal name 
must agree in gender with that of the genus, 
in this case it being neuter. 
Since it has not been illustrated, there is in- 
cluded here a drawing made from the holo- 
type: Kauai, Hanapepe, Mann & Brigham 
590 (GH), of N. viride Hbd. var. viride 
(Fig. 5). 
LEGUMINOSAE 
Abrus precatorius (L.) L. forma 
luteoseminalis forma nov. 
Seminibus pallide luteis. Seeds pale yellow. 
NOM. VERN.: "pukeawe lenalena” ( = Yel- 
low Pukeawe) . On the larger Hawaiian Islands 
the vernacular name "pukeawe” is applied to 
the native shrubs in the genus Styphelia, 
HOLOTYPUS: Niihau, Nonopapa, 20 ft. alt., 
in scrub on dry limestone flat, seeds pale 
yellow, August 13, 1947, H. Sl John 22,768 
(BISH). 
The typical form of the species with black- 
ended scarlet seeds occurred near by, but in 
one section of the thicket all the plants pro- 
duced wholly seeds that were of a pale yellow 
color. This is not a common form of the 
species, and seems to have been mentioned 
previously only by Pollacci (1918: pi. 18, 
fig. 10). The new name is from the Latin 
hiteus, yellow, seminalis, pertaining to a seed, 
in allusion to the seed color. 
Erythrina sandwicensis Degener var. 
sandwicensis forma sandwicensis 
E. sandwicensis Degener, FI. Haw. fam. I69c: 
12/5/’32, with fig. 
E. monosperma Gaud., Voy. Freyc. Uranie, 
Bot. 486, 93, (1826) [ = 1830]; and Atlas 
pi. 114, 1826-30; not £, monosperma Lam. 
{1186) = Butea monosperma (Lam.) Taubert. 
Corollas orange, or varying from yellow to 
scarlet; seeds bright red. 
The name E. sandwicensis Degener was 
merely a renaming of the long known com- 
mon lowland tree first called E. monosperma 
Gaud., this name having proven invalid, be- 
ing a later homonym. Hillebrand, Rock, and 
other Hawaiian authors had accepted this 
tree as indigenous in both Hawaii and Tahiti, 
and listed as a synonym E. tahitensis Nad., 
described from a locality at 700-800 meters 
