Geissois denhamii Seem.

Fortune Hopkins, Helen C., 2006, Nomenclature and typification in Geissois (Cunoniaceae) in the South-West Pacific, Adansonia (3) 28 (2), pp. 311-327 : 321-322

1. Geissois denhamii Seem.

Flora vitiensis 3: 109 (1866) as “ Denhami ”. — Type (as given in protologue): “in Herb. Mus. Brit.; [...] Aneiteum, New Hebrides (M’Gillivray!) [sic]”. — Holotype: MacGillivray s.n., Aneiteum, ( BM! barcode 000600409 [fl., y.fr.]; possible iso-, K! [Bot. no. 927, XI.1853]).

Remarks

The specific epithet honours Denham, who was captain of the H.M.S. Herald during its voyage of exploration to the south-west Pacific and Australia between 1852 and 1861 ( David 1995). During this voyage, MacGillivray was the ship’s naturalist until 1855, studying ethnography, animals and plants, and William Grant Milne the assistant naturalist until 1858, mostly involved in collecting plants. Both apparently collected material of Geissois denhamii though the dates and circumstances of the various collections are not entirely clear. Their plant specimens were sent to William Jackson Hooker at Kew, who criticized their labelling, and Milne also accused MacGillivray of passing off some of his (Milne’s) duplicate specimens as his own (MacGillivray’s) ( David 1995).

Naming the species for Denham suggests that the type would have been collected during the voyage of the Herald, which visited Aneiteum from 7 to 29 November 1853 and again briefly from 28 November to 1 December 1854 ( David 1995). The holotype at BM has no original label although a handwritten date on the reverse side of the sheet appears to be 1854. A recent typed label on the upper side of the specimen gives the date as 1859, apparently in error. However, after being dismissed from the Herald in 1855 for dereliction of duty, MacGillivray made further collections in the New Hebrides and New Caledonia on his own account between 1858 and 1860. Guillaumin (1911a) said that plant specimens from this period were acquired by P, though he may have been referring particularly to specimens from New Caledonia. David (1995) reported that 795 plant specimens were bought from MacGillivray by the British Museum between 1855 and 1863; they must have included some from the voyage of the Herald as they came not only from the islands in the Pacific Ocean but also the South Atlantic. If the date on the underside of the type is indeed 1854, then this specimen was most probably collected during the voyage of the Herald and sold to BM by MacGillivray. Seemann must have known the history of the collections as he had been the botanist on a previous voyage of the Herald, from 1847 to 1851, under the command of Henry Kellett, and he was unable to accompany Denham because he was still writing up the results of that previous voyage ( David 1995).

Material at K from the voyage of the Herald under Denham consists of three sheets. MacGillivray 927 closely resembles the holotype and may perhaps be an isotype. In addition, two sheets are labelled “ Milne 263, Aneiteum, Nov. 1853 ” and also consist of very similar material, possibly from the same plant. The MacGillivray specimen and one sheet of Milne’s have detailed pencil sketches of flowers and fruits. Milne’s second sheet has an envelope labelled “Isle of Pines, MacGillivray & Milne ” containing flowers. However , they appear to belong to G. denhamii and so are unlikely to come from the Isle of Pines at the south end of New Caledonia, although the Herald did call there in 1853 before landing at Aneiteum .