Charles Plumier's drawings of American plants and the nomenclature of early Caribbean Aristolochia species (Aristolochiaceae)

Summary Rankin Rodríguez, R. & Greuter, W.: Charles Plumier's drawings of American plants and the nomenclature of early Caribbean Aristolochia species (Aristolochiaceae). ‐ ‐ Taxon 48: 677‐688. 1999. – ISSN 0040‐0262. Among the 1657 mostly unpublished drawings of Caribbean plants made by Charles Plumier between 1689 and 1697, 6 concern species of Aristolochia. All have served, either in original (kept in the Central Library of the National Museum of Natural History in Paris) or in copy (from the series drawn for Boerhaave in 1733 and studied in 1738 by Linnaeus), or as published plates base on either set, or by an associated description, as the main basis for 7 heterotypic binomials referring to 6 species. Having studied the original drawings and Plumier's correlated manuscript notes in Paris as well as the 4 extant Boerhaave copies and all relevant literature, the authors critically review the typification and application of the binomials concerned, designating lecto‐ or neotypes where needed and epitypes in most cases. Current usage of names is maintained with two exceptions. The name A. bilabiata has, since 1966, been misapplied to the species that was previously and correctly known as A. oblongata, and should therefore now be rejected as a confused name (rather than being adopted in the sense of its type, displacing A. chasmema to designate a rare endemic of Haiti, Hispaniola). A. punctata, so far considered a doubtful name, is synonymous with A. fuertesii and must be adopted in its stead for another seldom collected endemic of Hispaniola.