The botanical legacy of Thomas Hardwicke’s journey to Srinagar in 1796
Author
Turner, Ian M.
text
European Journal of Taxonomy
2015
2015-01-06
108
1
25
journal article
22437
10.5852/ejt.2015.108
41d54399-b903-4b22-afab-dec75fdf804f
2118-9773
3779322
Ixora tomentosa
Hardwicke’s entry for this species is very brief:
“
Ixora tomentosa
of Doctor Roxburgh. — Found in the neighbourhood of Ghinouly near the Koanullah, acquires the size of a pretty large tree, though of deformed growth, now in flower. Flowers white, numerous.”
It is questionable whether this description is sufficiently detailed to consider the name validly published here and as little would be gained from doing so, I will not take up the name from this source. There are drawings in the British Library (Vol. VII nos. 32–34) that show the plant is
Pavetta tomentosa
as validated by Sir J.E. Smith in Rees’s
Cyclopaedia
(
Rees 1814
).
Madden (1849)
opined that the reference to deformed growth was the result of goat browsing. Roxburgh described
Ixora tomentosa
in the first edition of
Flora Indica
(
Roxburgh 1820
). He did not refer to Smith or
Pavetta tomentosa
but it seems simpler to invoke ICN (
McNeill
et al
. 2012
) Art. 41.4 and treat
Ixora tomentosa
as a new combination based on
Pavetta tomentosa
.