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Jepson Field Book Transcriptions · Jepson Herbarium
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51_110 Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew - Dr. Carl Epling who is here thinks Lepechinia should include Sphacele, that there is no substantial or trustworthy differences between them. He brings up the case of Lepechinia hastata found only on one of the Hawaian Islands and towards the tip of lower California, and queries early introduction by man - Jesuit missionaries - but this theory I regard as strained. At least in the Hawaian Islands this species has all the characters of a native plant in its distribution. Its occurrence in Lower California as to habitat and local range was not described by Brandegee, who reported it. Epling says the work of Briquet in Engler & Prantl's Die Naturlichen Pflanzenfamilien |
51_111 Aug. 26, 1930 is not trustworthy. He instances the case of Lepechinia put into a different generic group from Sphacele; of [C___inia] put near Mentha on account of its habit, while in reality its fleshy "seeds" (nutlets) place it far elsewhere. Briquet did not know it had fleshy nutlets or if he did, failed to mention them. Epling says barely 20% of Briquet's S. Am. [South American] species are good, that he based species sometimes on exceedingly small scraps, in one case on a sterile scrap calling it Sphacele sp. when it does not belong to that genus. - The beginnings of Californca phaenogamic botany are mostly rather clear. This is because collections did not begin until a rather recent date and in consequence, the descriptions are fairly |
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