The misapplication of the name Croton urticoides, the reinstatement of the name Adriana tomentosa, and Allan Cunningham’s book herbarium at Chelsea Physic Garden
A. E. Orchard A and C. L. Gross B CA PO Box 3427, Weston Creek, ACT 2611, Australia.
B Ecosystem Management and the N.C.W. Beadle Herbarium, University of New England, Armidale, NSW 2351, Australia.
C Corresponding author. Email: cgross@une.edu.au
Australian Systematic Botany 22(5) 377-383 https://doi.org/10.1071/SB09031
Submitted: 9 July 2009 Accepted: 11 August 2009 Published: 28 October 2009
Abstract
Adriana Gaudich. is a small genus in the Euphorbiaceae that is endemic to Australia. Recently, new combinations were made by others for Adriana on the premise that Croton urticoides A.Cunn. is an earlier name for A. tomentosa. The type was not seen, although it was suggested that it resided in Robert Heward’s book herbarium of assembled Allan Cunningham specimens held at the Chelsea Physic Garden. This mini-herbarium has not been rediscovered, but true type material has been found at the herbarium, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. An inspection of the type of C. urticoides held at Kew revealed that the material is Gynatrix pulchella (Willd.) Alef in the Malvaceae and its epithet predates that of C. urticoides by several years. We discuss the amplification of errors that have occurred for an incorrect name that has become accepted by several herbaria in Australia. This book herbarium cannot be located at present, and is presumed lost, although it is likely that type materials of most if not all Cunningham’s (1825) names still exist elsewhere. There is little or no evidence that the book herbarium at Chelsea Physic Garden contained type material of species described by Cunningham (1825) in Field’s Geographical Memoirs. Instead, it is likely that it consisted of material assembled many years later by Heward from Cunningham’s collections, to illustrate the taxa in Cunningham’s publications. The type of C. urticoides is fixed herein by lectotypification. We provide a summary of the nomenclature for the taxa under discussion.
1 The date of publication of this work is slightly uncertain. Internal evidence from the Preface, Frontispiece and plates, cited in Dorr and Nicolson (2008), suggest publication on or after February–April 1825, whereas J. D. Hooker’s copy of the work in the library at Kew is annotated May 1825 fide John Murray on the title page.
Acknowledgements
C. L. G. thanks the Director of Kew for permission to view specimens, Jeremy Bruhl, who as Australian Botanical Liaison Officer in Kew in 2008 assisted her in gaining access to the Chelsea Physic Garden mini-herbarium, Louisa Murray for help at NSW, I. Telford and D. Mackay for comments. Both authors thank the staff of Chelsea Physic Garden, particularly David Frodin and Liz Thornton, for facilitating their examination of Cunningham material in that institution, and A. E. O. thanks the curators of numerous herbaria (mentioned above) who provided access to their collections as part of his Allan Cunningham research.
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