Geissois, Fortune Hopkins, 2006

Fortune Hopkins, Helen C., 2006, Nomenclature and typification in Geissois (Cunoniaceae) in the South-West Pacific, Adansonia (3) 28 (2), pp. 311-327 : 317

6. Geissois magnifica Baker f.

Journal of the Linnean Society, Botany 45: 300 (1921) . — Type (as given in protologue): “Cap Bocage, [...] 1378”. — Holotype: Cap Bocage, scrub and shrubby forest, serpentine, 6.VII.1914, Compton 1378 (BM! barcode no. 000528704 [fl.]).

Geissois racemosa sensu Lindl. , Journal of the Horticultural Society of London 6: 272 (1851); Lindley & Paxton, Paxton’s Flower Garden 2: 146 (1851-1852); non Labill. (1825).

Remarks

The earliest references in print to this species (Lindley 1851; Lindley & Paxton 1851 -1852) placed it under Geissois racemosa , the only named species at that time. They described a magnificent stove house plant introduced into cultivation as an ornamental by Moore, which was a small tree, native to bare, exposed places on the east coast of New Caledonia, with racemes 8-12 inches long and large, glaucous, amplexicaul stipules. The morphology and habitat both suggest G. magnifica rather than G. racemosa .

Moore was director of the botanical garden at Sydney and visited New Zealand, Vanuatu and New Caledonia in 1850 on the British naval vessel Havannah ( McKee 1966). According to Guillaumin (1911a), he was responsible for the introduction of a number of species into cultivation. A sheet at K labelled “ Geissois sp.n., New Hebrides, Lindley 1852” consists of two racemes of the unusually large flowers of G. magnifica . It almost certainly did not come from Vanuatu but may have been sent to Lindley by Moore or collected by Lindley from one of the stove house plants referred to above.