108 
THE JOURNAL OF BOTANY 
THE NAME FORSTERA Linn. 
By B. Daydon Jackson, Pii.D., Sec.L.S. 
Some months ago I found in the Smithian herbarium four sheets 
from the Linnean collection bearing impressions of the plants which 
had been taken oft* the sheets, leaving only the impress of the plants. 
Enough remained to determine their true position with the exception 
of one sheet, which had previously had a grass-like plant glued down, 
with the legend in Linne’s handwriting “ Forstera vaginalis Sp.” ; 
on the back is “ Forsteria Sparrm. Act. Angl.” in the same hand¬ 
writing. 
I could find no Forstera vaginalis, and the marks left on the 
paper were clearly not of the received Stylidiaceous genus ; I there¬ 
fore turned to the literature which might explain the mystery of the 
Linnean statements. The genus is usually attributed to “ Linn. f. 
in Nov. Act. Soc. Sc. Upsal. id. (1780) 184, t. 9,” with one species, 
“ F. sedi^olia Forst.” The title of the paper throws doubt upon the 
correctness of this ascription—“ Decas plantarum novarum, ex insulis 
maris australis, transmissa a Georgio Forstero, Anglo,” which may be 
rendered “ Ten new plants from the islands of the South Sea sent 
by George Forster, the Englishman.” Yet, apparently on the fact of 
its being sent by the younger Forster, the father of the sender is 
charged with naming the plant after himself, in Linn. f. Suppl. 59 
(“Forstera. Forst. Act. Ups. v. 3, p. 184”), and the species on 
p. 407 with almost the same citation (“Forstera. sedifolia. 
Forst. Act. Ups. v. 3, p, 184, t. 9”). 
Upon turning to the Uppsala publication, we find that the descrip¬ 
tions are preceded by two pages written b}^ an anonymous author, 
from internal evidence undoubtedly the younger Linne. He explains 
that the two Forsters on their return from [Cook’s second voyage] 
round the world in the year 1775, sent descriptions of some plants to 
Linne, who showed them at a meeting of the Royal Society of 
Sciences, Uppsala, promising that the Society should have the oppor¬ 
tunity of publishing the pajier. But Linne’s health was then broken, 
and His death took place without the written descriptions reaching 
the Society. It fell, therefore, to his son and successor to fulfil the 
obligation; the name Forstera had been applied to an unnamed 
plant by his father, in honour of the naturalists, with an engraving 
from a coloured drawing by George Forster. By letters the elder 
Forster had informed Linne that descriptions of Gahnia, Drimys 
Winteri, I). axillaris, and Forstera had first been drawn up by 
Anders Sparrman, a friend of the Forsters, and their companion from 
the Cape to New Zealand and back ; the rest [details P] were added 
by George Forster, and the final revision by J. R. Forster. 
In the preface to the Characteres generum plantarum (Lend. 
1775) the authors state that Sparrman described the plants, and 
George drew them, while the elder Forster devoted himself to zoologv. 
When Sparrman had completed his descriptions, the Forsters were 
consulted, the younger digested them in another volume and the father 
revised and copied them into yet another volume, in the order of the 
Linnean system. 
