Re: Nepenthes Taxonomy

Jan Schlauer (zxmsl01@studserv.zdv.uni-tuebingen.de)
Mon, 19 Sep 1994 17:03:57 +0100

Dear Matthew,

(...)
>- 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.

Sorry if I have hurt your feelings, I (erroneously) thought you really
wanted to discuss the quality of some publications. Mea culpa!

We are not really going to describe the plant (it was already described by
TAMIN & HOTTA, only not validly), we just validate the name, and we have no
illustrations in our paper.

>Don't be so picky,
(...)
> - this correspondence is not meant to be a definitive publication -

I do not think "definitive publications" to be the right place to become
picky in, and that all previous correspondence should be a place of peace
and politeness even if opinions diverge.

>N.gracilis vs.N.neglecta:
(...)
>Given these problems I think it may be very difficult to be certain of
>N.neglecta's true facies .

The above sounds much better in my ears than your original:

>25 N.gracilis Korth.
> to incl. N.neglecta

Have you seen other *original* material besides Burbidge s.n. (K)? I have
requested all original material from K, and the only thing I received was
the cibachrome I have mentioned. I have also noticed the contradiction
between the description "Flores et fructus ignoti" and the "fld. specimen".
It seems some of the cited specimens in "Das Pflanzenreich" were edited by
some other author (in German!) after the body of the (English and Latin)
text was completed. Thus, I assumed I had studied the "correct Burbidge".
But I am willing to learn better.

>The description mentions the glandulation of the lid as comprising
>"few, large irregular glands" and not the many small glands which
>characterise N.hirsuta.

I think _N.hirsuta_ is caracterized by many small round glands distributed
homogeneously on the lower lid surface *plus* some less numerous larger +/-
elliptical glands along the midrib on this surface (cf. the mentioned type
specimen of _N.hirsuta_). Perhaps (of course, only a guess!) these could be
meant with "few, large irregular glands".

>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.

In this case it is probably easiest to await the continuation of our series
"Notes on _Nepenthes_", which we will send you in due course. But I thought
you were interested in discussing some details at a less formal level.

Kind regards
Jan