Codia, J. R. Forst. F G. Forst.

Fortune Hopkins, Helen C., 2005, Nomenclature and typification in the endemic genus Codia (Cunoniaceae) from New Caledonia, Adansonia (3) 27 (2), pp. 243-254 : 244-246

CODIA J.R.Forst. F G.Forst.

Char. Gen. Pl.: 59, tab. 30 (1775).

Pfeifferago Kuntze, Revis. Gen. Pl. 1: 227 (1891).

TYPE. — Codia montana J.R.Forst. F G.Forst.

FIG. 1. — Codia montana J.R.Forst. & G.Forst. Reproduced from LABILLARDIÈRE (1824).

The first edition of the FORSTERS’ book, with only two copies known, was published on 29 November 1775 ( FARR et al. 1986; see http:// ravenel.si.edu/botany/ing/). Numerous copies exist of the two subsequent editions from 1776 ( STAFLEU F COWAN 1976 ), and this date has sometimes been given as that for publication of the name Codia .

KUNTZE (1891) published Pfeifferago as a nomenclatural synonym to replace Codia , considering the latter to be a variant of the same word as RUMPHIUS’ name Codiaeum but referring to a different plant. Both names are derived from the Greek word “kodeia” or “kodia”, meaning a head, or Codiaeum may perhaps be derived from “kodiho”, the vernacular name for Codiaeum variegatum in Ternate in the Moluccas ( QUATTROCCHI 2000). However, the name Codia is legitimate as RUMPHIUS’ name was published prior to 1753 and thus cannot be considered for priority, and Codia is not now thought to be sufficiently similar to Codiaeum to be problematic. The name Pfeifferago commemorated the German botanist Louis Karl Georg PFEIFFER (1805-1877) ( QUATTROCCHI 2000).