Arbutus herpetica

Turner, Ian M., 2015, The botanical legacy of Thomas Hardwicke’s journey to Srinagar in 1796, European Journal of Taxonomy 108, pp. 1-25 : 16

Arbutus herpetica

Roxburgh (1832a) ascribed this binomial to Colebrooke and made reference to Hardwicke’s ‘ Arbutus doubtful’. Before Roxburgh’s publication appeared, however, Wallich had already referred to Arbutus herpetica and Hardwicke’s drawing in describing Andromeda ovalifolia from Nepal. Wallich noted that the two did not agree in all respects. For simplicity, below I treat Arbutus herpetica as a synonym of Lyonia ovalifolia (Wall.) Drude , but Judd (1981), recognised a number of varieties to capture the variability of the species, and Arbutus herpetica probably is closest to his var. cordata . Below, I select the Hardwicke drawing no. 36 in the Natural History Museum set as the type of Arbutus herpetica . There is a similar drawing in the Plants of India set (Vol. VII no. 24).