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Phytotaxa 399 (1): 049–064
https://www.mapress.com/j/pt/
Copyright © 2019 Magnolia Press Article PHYTOTAXA
ISSN 1179-3155 (print edition)
ISSN 1179-3163 (online edition)
Accepted by Ronell Klopper: 20 Feb. 2019; published: 25 Mar. 2019
https://doi.org/10.11646/phytotaxa.399.1.6
49
Nomenclatural and taxonomical notes on some taxa described by Roberto de Visiani
from Egypt and Sudan
MORENO CLEMENTI¹*, MARCO D’ANTRACCOLI² & ANTONELLA MIOLA¹
¹Department of Biology, University of Padova, via Ugo Bassi 58 B, 35131 Padova, Italy.
²Department of Biology, University of Pisa, Via Derna 1, 56126 Pisa, Italy.
*Author for correspondence: E-mail: moreno.clementi@bio.unipd.it
Abstract
We provide nomenclatural and taxonomical information on the names of sixteen taxa treated by Roberto de Visiani from
Egypt and Nubia (Sudan) in his 1836 work ‘Enumerazione ed illustrazione di alcune piante dell’Egitto e della Nubia
con otto tavole in rame’. We designate ten lectotypes (for Chrozophora brocchiana, Convolvulus lasiospermus, Corchorus
fruticulosus, Croton obliquifolium, Heliotropium brocchianum, Lithospermum obtusum, Trianthema sedifolia, Trigonella
arguta, Trigonella dura, and Volkameria acerbiana), and one neotype (for Convolvulus lasiospermus).
Key words: African flora, typification, Giuseppe Acerbi, Gian Battista Brocchi
Introduction
As part of ongoing research on the nomenclature and taxonomy of the plants studied by Dalmatian botanist Roberto de
Visiani (1800–1878; see Clementi et al. 2014; Clementi et al. 2015a, 2015b, 2016), we here present a series of notes
on the often neglected and poorly understood taxa he described for present-day Egypt and Sudan in three related works
published in 1836 (Visiani 1836a; Visiani 1836b; Visiani 1836c). The aim of this current paper is to typify the names
established by Visiani (1836a, 1836b, 1836c) and to clarify their application as far as is possible.
In order to understand the toponyms used by Visiani, the geopolitical situation of the area at the time should briefly
be examined. In the 1820s, Egypt was a largely autonomous vassal state of the Ottoman Empire. The area known to
Europeans as “Nubia” had instead been a collection of small territories that were more or less directly controlled by
the Sultanate of Sennar (named after its capital city), one of which was the Kingdom of Berber. In 1821, the Sultanate
was conquered by Egypt, who thus claimed control over the whole area of interest to us. The city of Khartoum, now
the capital of Sudan and its largest city, was initially founded as a military outpost by the Egyptian rulers, immediately
after the conquest occurred in 1821 (O’Fahey & Spaulding 2016).
Visiani never visited these areas in person, and the history of the plant specimen collection he got to study is
particularly complex. This may be attributed to the great fame of the two explorers who collected the specimens,
namely Gian Battista Brocchi (1772–1826) and Giuseppe Acerbi (1773–1846), a prestige they enjoyed already at the
time of their travels, and which apparently incited many to try and obtain some of their scant gatherings.
Gian Battista Brocchi was already a well-known adventurer and naturalist when, in 1822, he moved to Egypt to
conduct some geological surveys on behalf of the Austrian Empire (Clementi 2017). Two years later, he travelled to
Nubia, now northern Sudan, where an unknown illness claimed his life in September 1826 (Béguinot & Zenari 1920).
The collection of around 500 plant specimens he had gathered during this period soon came into the hands of Giuseppe
Acerbi, also an explorer, who was then the Consul General of the Austrian Empire in Cairo, Egypt. These specimens
were mostly sent by Acerbi to Brocchi’s heir, his brother Domenico, who still lived in the family’s native town of
Bassano del Grappa, not far from Padova, Italy. A small fraction of the material was instead donated to the Herbarium
of Padova (Visiani 1836a), where Visiani could study it and prepare the works that we analyse here. An unknown
number of specimens was reportedly (Béguinot & Zenari 1920) stolen as the parcel passed through Trieste, Italy, on
its way from Cairo to Bassano. After preparation of two publications (Visiani 1836a, 1836b), Visiani asked Domenico
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Brocchi for access to the rest of the collection, a permission soon granted (in litt. from D. Brocchi to Visiani, 24 Feb.
1837). The whole collection of Gian Battista Brocchi was then held in PAD (acronyms follow Thiers 2018) for three
years. However, before he could present any new work on it, Visiani was forced to return the specimens to the township
of Bassano, which had meanwhile inherited it (in litt. from D. Brocchi to Visiani, 5 Mar. 1840; Béguinot & Zenari
1920). Some time later, the original collection used by Visiani to describe his new species, which had remained in
PAD, was fatally lost (Saccardo 1869), and Visiani blamed his former assistant Francesco Beltramini De’ Casati (in litt.
from Visiani to Beltramini, 8 Sep. 1863). Acerbi, having meanwhile returned from Egypt, sent some of the specimens
collected by Brocchi, and conserved in Bassano, to Geneva, Switzerland, in 1831—a few were wrongly cited in
Alphonse De Candolle’s ‘Prodromus’ (De Candolle 1844) as collected by Acerbi in Nubia, where he actually never
travelled. In 1920, Augusto Béguinot and Silvia Zenari were able to find around a hundred specimens collected by
Brocchi in PAD, some of which they speculated were sent from Bassano, for some unknown reason, in 1873 (Béguinot
& Zenari 1920). Others still, apparently including a few from the original collection that Visiani had used for his
papers, returned to Padova from the herbarium originally possessed by naturalist Giuseppe Meneghini (1811–1889),
who had been Visiani’s assistant from 1836 to 1839. Why Meneghini was in possession of those specimens in the first
place is unknown, but it has been argued (Béguinot & Zenari 1920; Clementi 2017) that the fact exonerates Beltramini.
Finally, a total of 43 specimens collected by Brocchi and Acerbi were donated by Meneghini to the Herbarium of Pisa
(PI), Italy, after he obtained the chair of geology at the university of that town, in 1849 (Tomei et al. 2005).
Acerbi too, during his duty as the Consul to Egypt, gathered a small collection of plant specimens, which he sent
to the Botanical Garden of Padova in 1835, shortly before sending the specimens collected by Brocchi (Béguinot &
Zenari 1920). The donation was accepted by eighty-two-year-old professor Giuseppe Antonio Bonato (1753–1836)
and remains in PAD to this day. These specimens were studied in the following year, when Visiani examined it along
with Brocchi’s for his 1836 papers.
Materials and methods
Much of the history presented in the introduction was reconstructed thanks to unpublished material by Visiani, available
at the Historical Library of the Botanical Garden of Padova, Italy.
As he had done previously (Visiani 1829, 1830), Visiani opted to present an abstract with only the newly discovered
species (Visiani 1836c) before writing a full paper on the subject (Visiani 1836a). The abstract was presented to
the publisher on the 21st of July 1836 (Visiani 1836c) and it announces the upcoming publication of the full paper.
Nevertheless, the periodical in which it appeared was not distributed until the three month-volume (July-August-
September) was completed, so it was not effectively published earlier than the end of September 1836. The full paper
was published both as an article in a local medical journal in the volume of August (Visiani 1836a), and as a separate
booklet (Visiani 1836b). While the abstract (Visiani 1836c) contains only the bare descriptions of the new taxa,
accompanied by an introduction in Italian, the full paper (Visiani 1836a, 1836b) was written entirely in Latin. It also
contains descriptions of already known taxa (174 in total), as well as those of two new varieties and one new status,
a very short introduction on the two collectors, detailed nomenclatural and taxonomical observations for each plant,
and the legend of the illustrations. Visiani (1836a) and Visiani (1836b) were almost certainly printed simultaneously,
as the two publications are perfectly identical both in the text and in the eight included tables, printed on a different
format paper from the main text, and differ only in page numbering. We chose to treat Visiani (1836a) as the place of
original publication of the names we examine, given that Visiani (1836b) is marked as an excerpt from Visiani (1836a)
on a note in the inside front cover. Illustrations published “as part of the protologue”, are part of the original material
according to Art. 9.4(b) (Turland et al. 2018). With regard to Visiani (1836c), we consider it to be effectively published
in the sense of Art. 31 (Turland et al. 2018) only in September 1836, and it is thus later than Visiani (1836a, 1836b).
We have chosen to limit our study only to those names published in Visiani (1836a) at or above the rank of
species. For the sake of completeness, we here mention the four varieties published as new in Visiani (1836a): Poa
pilosa var. aegyptiaca Visiani (1836a: 190), Potentilla supina var. aegyptiaca Visiani (1836a: 205), Sida spinosa var.
sennaariensis Visiani (1836a: 211), as well as the one new combination published at the rank of variety: Plantago
lagopus var. eriostachya (Ten.) Visiani (1836a: 8) (≡ Plantago eriostachya Tenore 1811: 13).
Following the information obtained through our reconstruction of the history of the collections of Brocchi and
Acerbi, we consulted the following herbaria: BASSA, G, PAD, and PI (acronyms follow Thiers 2018). None of the
specimens we were able to retrieve is clearly recognisable in the illustrations provided in Visiani (1836a), and for a
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minority of taxa we could find no suitable specimens at all. The situation has not improved much since the survey of
Béguinot & Zenari (1920), and given our very thorough research (see also Clementi 2017), we believe that it is not
likely to improve much in the future, barred some chance discovery.
To the best of our knowledge, all typifications are in accordance with the current concepts of the species, whenever
we do not state otherwise (Turland et al. 2018).
Typifications and examined names
Asterocephalus arenarius (Forsskål) Visiani (1836a: 190; also treated in Visiani 1836b: 6; 1836c: 64)
Basionym:—Scabiosa arenaria Forsskål (1775: LXI).
Note:—This name is generally wrongly considered as published by Visiani as a new taxon (see e.g. IPNI 2018). Visiani
in fact cites the treatment by Forsskål (1775) following it with a question mark (“?”), due to S. arenaria having been
described only with the imprecise validating phrase “Flore albo; calyce longiore”. Nonetheless he also cites, without
any indication of doubt, Delile’s treatment of the taxon (Delile 1813: 53, non Delile 1813: 77 as cited in Visiani 1836a,
1836b), which refers back to Forsskål (1775: CV, 38).
Heliotropium brocchianum Visiani (1836a: 192; also treated in Visiani 1836b: 8; 1836c: 65)
Locus classicus:—“circa Chartum in Sennaar”.
Lectotype (designated here):—SUDAN. Chartoum [Khartoum] in Sennaar, [1824–1826], G.B. Brocchi s.n. (G00147133!) (see Fig. 1).
Note:—The label of the specimen we select as type bears, in the handwriting of Brocchi, the following description:
“Corolla infundibulif[ormis] limbo 5-fido. Faux pervia, at pilis 5 stellatim dispositi instructa (fauce luteola). Planta
prostrata”. This is almost identical to the original description by Brocchi that Visiani (1836a) reports in the protologue.
The specimen has been recognised as pertaining to H. ovalifolium Forsskål (1775: 38).
Lithospermum obtusum Visiani (1836a: 194; also treated in Visiani 1836b: 10; 1836c: 65)
Locus classicus:—“in Ægypto”.
Lectotype (designated here):—EGYPT. s.l., [1824–1826], Brocchi s.n. (PI005426!) (see Fig. 2).
Note:—The specimen selected as type bears a label in the handwriting of Visiani, reading “In Aegypto Brocchi”,
and is the only specimen that we were able to locate. According to Cecchi (pers. comm.), the description and type fit
within the diversity of Alkanna tinctoria Tausch (1824: 234) s.l., a name wrongly (Cecchi, pers. comm.) considered
illegitimate by Boulos (2000).
Convolvulus lasiospermus Visiani (1836a: 197; also treated in Visiani 1836b: 13; 1836c: 66)
≡ Ipomoea rumicifolia Choisy (1833: 447)
Locus classicus:—“circa Chartum in Sennaar”.
Lectotype (designated here):—Illustration in Visiani 1836a: tab. 1 fig. 2.
Epitype (designated here):—SUDAN. Senaar, [1824–1826] Brocchi s.n. (G-DC000951!) (see Fig. 3).
Note:—The illustration in Visiani (1836a) is the only remaining original material, and is therefore our only choice
for a lectotype. Since it does not show many of the most important diagnostic features in its family (particularly the
gynoecium), we support our designation with the choice of an epitype. We conservatively select a specimen that
may well have been seen by Visiani, and that is at least a duplicate of his original material, having been collected by
Brocchi. It is compatible with the protologue (Visiani 1836a), and was recognised by Staples (in sched.) as a syntype
of Ipomoea rumicifolia Choisy (1833: 447), thus making C. lasiospermus a later, illegitimate homotypic synonym.
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FIGURE 1. Lectotype of Heliotropium brocchianum Vis.: Brocchi s.n. (G00147133, bottom specimen on sheet).
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FIGURE 2. Lectotype of Lithospermum obtusum Vis.: Brocchi s.n. (PI005426).
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FIGURE 3. Epitype of Convolvulus lasiospermus Vis.: Brocchi s.n. (G-DC000951, left specimen on sheet).
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Trianthema sedifolia Visiani (1836a: 203; also treated in Visiani 1836b: 19; 1836c: 66)
Locus classicus:—“circa Chartum in Sennaar”.
Lectotype (designated here):—Illustration in Visiani 1836a: tab. 3 fig. 1 (see Fig. 4).
Additional specimen examined:—EGYPT. s.l., [1824–1826], Brocchi s.n. (PI005425!).
FIGURE 4. Lectotype of Trianthema sedifolia Vis. Reproduced from Visiani (1836a: tab. 3 fig. 1).
Note:—The only available specimen we examined bears, in the handwriting of Visiani and with his signature, the
indication “In Aegypto”, while the locus classicus mentions Khartoum, Nubia. It is possible that in this occasion
Visiani used “Egypt” as a generic term to refer to the whole area, especially taking into account that Khartoum was
indeed an Egyptian city at that time (see introduction). It was also certainly recognised by Visiani himself as pertaining
to his T. sedifolia. Nevertheless, according to the identification key available in Hassan et al. (2005), the description in
Hartmann et al. (2011), the protologue itself (Visiani 1836a), and as was confirmed by Aizoaceae expert Sigrid Liede-
Schumann (pers. comm.), the said specimen certainly does not belong to T. sedifolia: the most striking inconsistencies
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being the size and shape of its leaves (2.5–3.0 × 1.5–2.1 mm, vs 5–12 × 0.5–2.0 mm in T. sedifolia) and the fact that it
is completely covered in idioblasts, whereas they are sparse in T. sedifolia, in the sense that this taxon is now accepted
by e.g. Hartmann et al. (2011) and other recent authors. We could only tentatively identify PI005425 as pertaining to
Sesuvium sesuvioides (Fenzl) Verdcourt (1957). The only available specimen from the original material is therefore
“in serious conflict with the protologue”, so that “an element that is not in conflict with the protologue is to be chosen”
(see Art. 9.19, Turland et al. 2018). Given that the treatment in Hartmann et al. (2011) was based on the illustration
accompanying Visiani (1836b), we consider it particularly suitable as a lectotype. Due to the challenges presented and
the scant material available, any attempt at designating an epitype should be left to the specialists on this group of
plants.
Corchorus fruticulosus Visiani (1836a: 205; also treated in Visiani 1836b: 21; 1836c: 66)
Locus classicus:—“circa Chartum in Sennaar”.
Lectotype (designated here):—Illustration in Visiani 1836a: tab. 3 fig. 2.
Note:—We were unable to locate any specimen from the original material during our research. The name has sometimes
been considered a synonym of C. trilocularis Linnaeus (1767: 77) (e.g. The Plant List 2018). Nevertheless, we believe
the description of the plant and its illustration fit better with that of C. depressus (L.) Stocks (in Blatter 1931: 891), for
its prostrate habit (not erect) and the smaller, elliptical to ovate, crenate-undulate leaves (not 3–5 cm long, lanceolate-
elliptical, serrate). The flower depicted in the analysis in Visiani (1836a) is 5-merous, while C. depressus usually has
4-merous flowers (Mandaville 1990). It should be noted, though, that 5-merous flowers do occur in C. depressus.
Moreover, given the general bad state of preservation of Brocchi’s material, we can easily imagine that Visiani may
have considered 4-merous flowers as incomplete, knowing that the genus is generally 5-merous. Once again, any
attempt at designating an epitype should be left to specialists with a deeper understanding of both the taxon and
suitable modern material.
Volkameria acerbiana Visiani (1836a: 207; also treated in Visiani 1836b: 23; 1836c: 66), “Volkamera”
Locus classicus:—“in Ægypto”.
Lectotype (designated here):—EGYPT. s.l., [1828–1829], G. Raddi s.n. (G00678626!, lower left specimen) (see Fig. 5).
Additional specimen examined:—SUDAN. Berber Mograd, in insula, 1841, C.G.T. Kotschy 359 (P00442333!, G00678639!).
Note:—The specimen by Kotschy in P, bearing the name V. acerbiana, is labelled as “Type”, but we could find no
evidence of it having been effectively designated as such.
The specimen we select as type was collected by Giuseppe Raddi (1770–1829) on his 1828–1829 expedition to
Egypt, during which he contracted a fatal illness (Baldini & Pignotti 2018). His specimens were sent to Pisa, Italy,
where they were examined by Gaetano Savi (1769–1844) in 1830 (Savi 1837). In the same year, Savi sent some of the
specimens to Geneva, Switzerland (in sched.). By 1834, he had prepared a paper describing the plant as a new species
in a new genus, with the name Cornacchinia fragiformis Savi (1837: 179), but the work could only be published three
years later, after Visiani (1836a) had meanwhile published V. acerbiana based on material by Acerbi, unaware of Savi’s
previous discovery.
One of the specimens sent by Savi to G was later recognised as V. acerbiana, and marked with an exclamation mark,
indicating that the specimen was seen by the author (Visiani 1836a) of the associated name. Indeed, the handwriting on
the specimen looks like that of Visiani. Given that it is very well preserved, and that it was almost certainly recognised
as V. acerbiana by Visiani himself, we choose it as the lectotype. The label of the type seems to refer to two branches
at different stages of development: a flowering branch on the left, and a branch with two dried calyces, remaining after
the maturation of the fruit, on the right. Since Visiani clearly based his description and later illustration (Visiani 1836a:
t. 4 fig. 1) on flowering specimens, we consider it safer to limit our designation to the left branch.
It is noteworthy that, according to Boulos (2002), the mainly tropical V. acerbiana is nowadays very rare in Egypt, only
occurring south of Kom Ombo, where both Raddi and Acerbi probably collected it.
Zilla microcarpa (DC.) Visiani (1836a: 208; also treated in Visiani 1836b: 24; 1836c: 67)
Basionym:—Zilla myagroides var. microcarpa De Candolle (1821: 647).
Note:—No specimens pertaining to this taxon could be located. The name is generally considered a synonym of Z.
spinosa (L.) Prantl (in Engler & Prantl 1891: 175) (Euro+Med 2018).
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FIGURE 5. Lectotype of Volkameria acerbiana Vis.: Raddi s.n. (G00678626, lower left specimen).
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Trigonella dura Visiani (1836a: 216 ; also treated in Visiani 1836b: 32; 1836c: 67)
Locus classicus:—“in Ægypto”.
Lectotype (designated here): Illustration in Visiani 1836a: tab. 7 fig. 1 (see Fig. 6).
Note:—Despite thorough research, we were unable to locate any specimen clearly pertaining to T. dura. Visiani’s
illustration (see Fig. 6) that was published along with the protologue, can be selected as a lectotype. By comparing
both the description and illustration provided in Visiani (1836a) with a more recent treatment of Trigonella Linnaeus
(1753: 776) in Egypt (Boulos 2000), we conclude that the name should be considered a later, heterotypic synonym
of T. maritima Delile ex Poiret (in Lamarck & Poiret 1817: 361), as was previously suggested (Euro+Med 2018).
In particular, the illustration clearly shows the characteristic ridges of the pod that are considered one of the main
diagnostic features of T. maritima.
FIGURE 6. Lectotype of Trigonella dura Vis. Reproduced from Visiani (1836a: tab. 7 fig. 1).
Trigonella arguta Visiani (1836a: 217; also treated in Visiani 1836b: 33; 1836c: 68)
Locus classicus:—“in Ægypto”.
Lectoype (designated here):—EGYPT. s.l., [ante 1835], Acerbi s.n. (PI005427!) (see Fig. 7).
Additional specimen examined:—EGYPT. s.l., [1824–1826], Brocchi [?] s.n. (PAD-H0057915!).
Note:—Visiani did not mention the collector of T. arguta in Visiani (1836a, 1836b, 1836c). The specimen here selected
as lectotype, collected by Acerbi, bears a label in the handwriting of Visiani and with his signature. It was recognised
as pertaining to T. laciniata Linnaeus (1763: 1095) by Rosa Baldini in 1999 (in sched.), which we can confirm. The
second specimen we examined was collected by Brocchi, but only bears the genus name in the original label and may
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not have been seen by Visiani before 1836. A second unsigned label, almost certainly by Emilio Chiovenda, who
examined Brocchi’s specimens in 1919 (in sched.), identifies it with the unpublished designation ‘Trigonella laciniata
var. arguta’, confirming our taxonomical conclusion on this poorly understood name.
FIGURE 7. Lectotype of Trigonella arguta Vis.: Acerbi s.n. (PI005427).
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Brocchia Visiani (1836a: 219; also treated in Visiani 1836b: 35; 1836c: 68)
Type:—B. cinerea Visiani (1836a: 35).
Note:—This species is the only one included by the author (Visiani 1836a) when the new genus was established, so
that it is the “holotype” of the genus (see Art. 10.1 Note 1; Turland et al. 2018).
Brocchia cinerea (Delile) Visiani (1836a: 219; also treated in Visiani 1836b: 35; 1836c: 68).
Basionym:—Cotula cinerea Delile (1813: 275).
Note:—This name is currently accepted (e.g. Euro+Med 2018).
Anthemis cairica Visiani (1836a: 220; also treated in Visiani 1836b: 36; 1836c: 69), nom. illeg. superfl.
Note:—Visiani mentioned as a synonym Anthemis retusa Delile (1813: 74), explicitly excluding the later homonym
A. retusa Link ex Sprengel (1826). Since Delile’s name takes priority, according to Art. 52.1. (Turland et al. 2018)
Visiani’s name is superfluous and illegitimate. Its type is therefore that of A. retusa Delile (see Art. 7.5; Turland et al.
2018).
Apargia annua Visiani (1836a: 222; also treated in Visiani 1836b: 38; 1836c: 69)
Locus classicus:—“in Ægypto”.
Note:—No specimens could be located pertaining to this taxon. This name has been considered a synonym of
Scorzoneroides hispidula (Delile) Greuter & Talavera (in Greuter et al. 2006: 691; basionym: Crepis hispidula Delile
1813: 261; see e.g. Boulos 2002), which we could not conclusively confirm.
Chrozophora brocchiana Visiani (1836a: 223; also treated in Visiani 1836b: 39; 1836c: 69), “Crozophora”
Locus classicus:—“in deserto prope Nedi in regno Berber Nubiæ”.
Lectotype (designated here):—SUDAN. Sennaar [Sannâr], s.d., Brocchi s.n. (PI005429!) (see Fig. 8).
Note:—From Brocchi’s own posthumous journal (Brocchi 1843), as well as from historical maps, we could determine
that the locus classicus refers to an area named “Nadi”, some eighty kilometres north of the town of Berber along the
river Nile, where there used to be a village with the common toponym of “Al Bageir”, i.e. “resting place”, “baghiri”
in Brocchi (1843).
As is the case for T. sedifolia, the indication on the label is much more generic. Nevertheless, since it was
recognised by the author (Visiani 1836a) as pertaining to C. brocchiana, we believe the specimen is particularly
suitable as a lectotype. This name is sometimes incorrectly reported as published by Visiani under the genus Croton
Linnaeus (1753: 1004; e.g. Euro+Med 2018), or as published as a new species in the genus Crozophora Necker ex A.
Jussieu (1824: 27) by Schweinfurth (1862: 9).
Croton obliquifolium Visiani (1836a: 223; also treated in Visiani 1836b: 39; 1836c: 70)
Locus classicus:—“in Ægypto”.
Lectotype (designated here):—EGYPT. s.l., s.d., Acerbi s.n. (PI005428!) (see Fig. 9).
Additional specimens examined:—EGYPT. In argine Nili, s.d., Brocchi s.n. (BASSA-BR-112!).
Note:—The specimen chosen as type bears a label written and signed by Visiani, and is therefore suitable as a lectotype.
This name is now generally considered a synonym of Chrozophora plicata (Vahl) A.Jussieu ex Sprengel (1826: 850)
(Euro+Med 2018). Visiani himself evaluated the similarities between these two plants, but he concluded that his new
taxon was different from Jussieu’s “because of the genus, the infructescence, the leaves, and the pendulous capsules”
(“genere, frutescentia, foliis, capsulis pendulis”).
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FIGURE 8. Lectotype of Chrozophora brocchiana Vis.: Brocchi s.n. (PI005429).
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FIGURE 9. Lectotype of Croton obliquifolium Vis.: Acerbi s.n. (PI005428).
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Acknowledgements
Firstly, we wish to thank three anonymous reviewers for their extremely accurate and helpful input, which allowed us
to make very substantial improvements to our first manuscript, as well as our section editor, Dr. Ronell Klopper. We
are highly beholden to Dr. Sigrid Liede-Schumann and Dr. Ulrich Meve for their kind help in the study of Trianthema
sedifolia, as well as to Dr. Lorenzo Cecchi for help with identifying and sorting out the nomenclature of Lithospermum
obtusum. We gratefully acknowledge the kind assistance of the curators of the herbaria that we visited or contacted,
in particular Magda Biasiolo (BASSA), Laurent Gautier (G), Rossella Marcucci (PAD), Lucia Amadei, Rosa Baldini
and Simonetta Maccioni (PI). The curators of G and PI kindly provided permission for us to reproduce images of the
specimens from their collections that were chosen as lectotypes in this publication. We also thank the personnel at
the Historical Library of the Botanical Garden of Padova and the Civic Library of Padova. We are also indebted to
Giuseppe Busnardo for his kind help.
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