N.adnata: There are certainly plenty of leaves and lids in Tamin and
Hotta's drawings, but we don't feel they show the correct shape or venation
(although we have not seen their own material). In particular the pennate
nerves are not shown (whether they are visible or not in fresh material is
immaterial); the leaf apex appears acute to acuminate; and the sometimes
cordate shape of the lid is not shown - all these are features which are
characteristic of the species, and we would therefore like to see them
illustrated - I would have thought my drawing of N.mirabilis is quite
immaterial in relation to the question of illustrating N.adnata thoroughly
- we are not questioning the quality of their work, I was merely interested
to know if you intended any illustraitons to go with your description.
N.rubromaculata: Don't be so picky, I appreciate that 1984 is later than
1877 - this correspondence is not meant to be a definitive publication -
homonyms and synonyms are both 'later' - albeit with different
consequences.
N.gracilis vs.N.neglecta: We would probably agree with you that Burbidge
s.n. at K, and labelled as a "Type specimen" of N.neglecta is probably
closest to N.hirsuta. In Macfarlane's publication he does mention
collections as "Low! Burbidge!" but in the description he states "Flores et
fructus ignoti", therefore it is possible that the flowering specimen may
not be the same Burbidge collection. Even though he has personally
labelled the specimen, he must have done this after making the description
which he has also based on the drawing by Beccari ("Macf. ex Icon.
Becarii") - possibly there was more than one Burbidge collection from
Labuan. The description mentions the glandulation of the lid as comprising
"few, large irregular glands" and not the many small glands which
characterise N.hirsuta. Given these problems I think it may be very
difficult to be certain of N.neglecta's true facies .
As to your questions on other species it is probably easiest to await the
completion of both the descriptions and drawings for our Blumea paper,
which we will send you in due course.
regards,
Matthew