Atunus plate of Rumphius = Atuna excelsa (Jack) Kostermans. Figure 2. Butonica plate of Rumphius = Barringtonia asiatica (L.) Kurz. Figure 3. Butonica Terrestris or Huttum Darat plate of Rumphius = Barringtonia racemosa (L.) Spreng. 

Contexts in source publication

Context 1

... the participants in this symposium are delighted that The National Tropical Botanical Garden took the initiative to have Herbarium Amboinense translated. I am sure that more bot- anists would have referred to this work if it had been available in a more accessible language. I have used the work of Georg Eberhard Rumphius several times in connection with my research on various plant families that occur in the Malesian region. As an introduction to this symposium I want to show how practising taxonomists must refer to and use the works of Rumphius. The Herbarium Amboinense is consulted today for two main purposes: to verify the names that have entered the taxonomic literature and to extract data about the many uses of the species included in the books. The topic of uses is treated in other papers here. I will briefly consider the members of the Chrysobalanaceae and the Lecythidaceae that are described in Herbarium Amboinense and that I have had to consult. Taxonomists are constantly debating the validity of Rumphius names that have entered the post-1854 literature when formal Linnean nomenclature began. For example, the validity or invalidity of the name Machilus Rumph. ex Lam. (Lauraceae) were voted upon in nomenclatural session of the last International Botanical Congress in Melbourne in July 2011, following a proposal to conserve this name by Yang (2008). In this case the proposal was rejected on the basis that ‘ Machilus ’ Rumph. was not a validly published name. Chapter 56 of Herbarium Amboinense is headed “ Atunus. Atun ” in the Latin column and Atun-Boom in the Dutch column. There is a good illustration of Atunus (Figure 1). Because this is a pre-Linnean name it had no value in botanical nomenclature and was largely ignored until the French polymath Constantine Samuel Rafinesque (1838) decided to bring the name into the scien- tific literature. It is not surprising that this name was overlooked for a long time in this privately published rather obscure work of Rafinesque pri- marily about the trees and shrubs of North America. When I was working on the generic concepts of the Chrysobalanaceae for my doctoral thesis one of my main conclusions was that the genus Parinari needed to be split into six genera. Some of the Malesian species formed an obvious genus and I found an old name for this, Cyclandrophora of Hasskarl (Flora 25: 47.1842). I had conclud- ed that Parinari glaberrima (Hassk.) Hassk., the type species of Cyclandrophora should be transferred back into Cyclandrophora along with seven other species. Kostermans (1963) made the nomenclatural recombinations after reading the abstract of my thesis. However, a few years later he came across the publication of Rafinesque and made new combinations into Atuna (Kostermans, 1969). There is no doubt that he was correct because Atuna racemosa Rafin. (1838) is the same species as Cyclandrophora glaberrima Hassk. (1842). Therefore, according to the rules of botanical nomenclature, the Rafinesque name must be used. Rafinesque provided a brief Latin de- scription and referred to Plate 56 of Herbarium Amboinense which became the type specimen and makes it a validly published name. Kostermans also transferred all the other species of Cyclandrophora to Atuna . Atuna racemosa (Figure 1) is a common species of Malesia distributed from the Malay peninsular to the Pacific islands of Fiji and Tonga so Ambon is well within its range. Rafinesque mentioned two properties on Atuna , taken from Rumphius, that the wood was hard but brittle and that the nut was spicy and as large as a hen’s egg. I will not say more about the many uses of Atuna because it is further dis- cussed by Eric Buenz (this issue), and I have described some of them in Prance (2004). The Herbarium Amboinense features two species that have subsequently been placed into Barringtonia in the Lecythidaceae. Chapter 29 of Book five features Barringtonia asiatica (L.) Kurz, which is given three names by Rumphius: Butonica (the Latin name he assigned) , Boa, Boeton, and Huttum , the local names (Figure 2). The characteristic tetragonous fruit of this species is clearly illustrated, and Rumphius refers to its dispersal by water. He also reported the well-known uses of the fruits of B. asiatica as a fish poison. The following Chapter 30 features Barringtonia racemosa (L.) Spreng., which is given the names: Butonica Terrestris in Latin and Huttum Darratt and Daun Putat as Ambon and Malaysian names (Figure 3). Rumphius refers to white and red versions of this species and describes separately the properties of each. Medicinal uses include the treatment of diarrhea and various stomach ailments. The fact that the names Butonica and Huttum were applied to both species clearly shows that Rumphius considered them related to each other. The name putat is used for species of Barringtonia almost throughout Malesia. The names Huttum and Butonica both entered the botanical literature later in post-Linnean times. Both the genera Huttum (Adanson, 1763, a rejected name) and Butonica (Lamarck, 1785, a later name than Barringtonia ) are now considered synonyms of Barringtonia . I have reported here on these three names of Rumphius as an introduction to this symposium in order to show how taxonomists today must still refer to this ancient text both for nomenclatural reasons, as in the case of Atuna, and for the wealth of information on the local uses of any species that are described in the Herbarium Amboinense . The other papers in this volume bring out a wealth of other information about Rumphius and emphasize the great value and service to botany provided by E. M. Beekman through the translation of this classic and seminal ...

Context 2

... the participants in this symposium are delighted that The National Tropical Botanical Garden took the initiative to have Herbarium Amboinense translated. I am sure that more bot- anists would have referred to this work if it had been available in a more accessible language. I have used the work of Georg Eberhard Rumphius several times in connection with my research on various plant families that occur in the Malesian region. As an introduction to this symposium I want to show how practising taxonomists must refer to and use the works of Rumphius. The Herbarium Amboinense is consulted today for two main purposes: to verify the names that have entered the taxonomic literature and to extract data about the many uses of the species included in the books. The topic of uses is treated in other papers here. I will briefly consider the members of the Chrysobalanaceae and the Lecythidaceae that are described in Herbarium Amboinense and that I have had to consult. Taxonomists are constantly debating the validity of Rumphius names that have entered the post-1854 literature when formal Linnean nomenclature began. For example, the validity or invalidity of the name Machilus Rumph. ex Lam. (Lauraceae) were voted upon in nomenclatural session of the last International Botanical Congress in Melbourne in July 2011, following a proposal to conserve this name by Yang (2008). In this case the proposal was rejected on the basis that ‘ Machilus ’ Rumph. was not a validly published name. Chapter 56 of Herbarium Amboinense is headed “ Atunus. Atun ” in the Latin column and Atun-Boom in the Dutch column. There is a good illustration of Atunus (Figure 1). Because this is a pre-Linnean name it had no value in botanical nomenclature and was largely ignored until the French polymath Constantine Samuel Rafinesque (1838) decided to bring the name into the scien- tific literature. It is not surprising that this name was overlooked for a long time in this privately published rather obscure work of Rafinesque pri- marily about the trees and shrubs of North America. When I was working on the generic concepts of the Chrysobalanaceae for my doctoral thesis one of my main conclusions was that the genus Parinari needed to be split into six genera. Some of the Malesian species formed an obvious genus and I found an old name for this, Cyclandrophora of Hasskarl (Flora 25: 47.1842). I had conclud- ed that Parinari glaberrima (Hassk.) Hassk., the type species of Cyclandrophora should be transferred back into Cyclandrophora along with seven other species. Kostermans (1963) made the nomenclatural recombinations after reading the abstract of my thesis. However, a few years later he came across the publication of Rafinesque and made new combinations into Atuna (Kostermans, 1969). There is no doubt that he was correct because Atuna racemosa Rafin. (1838) is the same species as Cyclandrophora glaberrima Hassk. (1842). Therefore, according to the rules of botanical nomenclature, the Rafinesque name must be used. Rafinesque provided a brief Latin de- scription and referred to Plate 56 of Herbarium Amboinense which became the type specimen and makes it a validly published name. Kostermans also transferred all the other species of Cyclandrophora to Atuna . Atuna racemosa (Figure 1) is a common species of Malesia distributed from the Malay peninsular to the Pacific islands of Fiji and Tonga so Ambon is well within its range. Rafinesque mentioned two properties on Atuna , taken from Rumphius, that the wood was hard but brittle and that the nut was spicy and as large as a hen’s egg. I will not say more about the many uses of Atuna because it is further dis- cussed by Eric Buenz (this issue), and I have described some of them in Prance (2004). The Herbarium Amboinense features two species that have subsequently been placed into Barringtonia in the Lecythidaceae. Chapter 29 of Book five features Barringtonia asiatica (L.) Kurz, which is given three names by Rumphius: Butonica (the Latin name he assigned) , Boa, Boeton, and Huttum , the local names (Figure 2). The characteristic tetragonous fruit of this species is clearly illustrated, and Rumphius refers to its dispersal by water. He also reported the well-known uses of the fruits of B. asiatica as a fish poison. The following Chapter 30 features Barringtonia racemosa (L.) Spreng., which is given the names: Butonica Terrestris in Latin and Huttum Darratt and Daun Putat as Ambon and Malaysian names (Figure 3). Rumphius refers to white and red versions of this species and describes separately the properties of each. Medicinal uses include the treatment of diarrhea and various stomach ailments. The fact that the names Butonica and Huttum were applied to both species clearly shows that Rumphius considered them related to each other. The name putat is used for species of Barringtonia almost throughout Malesia. The names Huttum and Butonica both entered the botanical literature later in post-Linnean times. Both the genera Huttum (Adanson, 1763, a rejected name) and Butonica (Lamarck, 1785, a later name than Barringtonia ) are now considered synonyms of Barringtonia . I have reported here on these three names of Rumphius as an introduction to this symposium in order to show how taxonomists today must still refer to this ancient text both for nomenclatural reasons, as in the case of Atuna, and for the wealth of information on the local uses of any species that are described in the Herbarium Amboinense . The other papers in this volume bring out a wealth of other information about Rumphius and emphasize the great value and service to botany provided by E. M. Beekman through the translation of this classic and seminal ...