TAXONOMIC ASSESSMENT OF THE NORTH AMERICAN TAXA PUBLISHED BY JOHN L. RIDDELL IN 1853

摘要

In 1853, John L. Riddpll, then a leading multidisciplinary scientist in Louisiana, validly published 34 binomials and trinomials of vascular plants from Alabama, Louisiana, and Texas. Most of these names were first published in 1852 in a checklist ofLouisiana plants, but lacked descriptions and hence were not then validly published. This paper has been previously noted by several biologists. The following year, Riddell published a paper in the same journal providing brief descriptions of all of these supposedly undescribed plants. Unfortunately, this paper with the valid publication of these names has rarely been noted, as the journal is not widely available in botanical libraries. The few names so noted are often attributed to the supposed publishing author rather than to Riddell, who alone should be credited as the author for the new taxa. The genera of flowering plants in which new species or varieties are described are listed alphabetically as follows: Acalypha, Campanula, Cucumis, Dicliptera,Eriogonum, Lysimachia, Melothria, Physalis, Plantago, Polygonum, Potamogeton, Quercus, Sagittaria, and Urtica. The protologue of each of the published names is included and, for those that we could identify, synonymy is listed. For those species which we were unable to identify, we have included the protologues as a convenience to those not having access to the 1853 publication. We hope others may have the floristic or monographic knowledge to identify those names we have been unable to.