Hideaki Ohba, Shinobu Akiyama and Gerard Thijsse
Dr. F. A. W. Miquel (1811-1871) studied the collections of Japanese plants collected by Phillip Franz von Siebold and his successors kept in the Rijksherbarium, Leiden (L) (Thijsse, 2003). He described many new taxa based on those collections in Prolusio Florae Japonicae 1) in his Annales Musei Botanici Lugduno-Batavi (1863-69), and in other works (Miquel, 1850-52, 1855-59, 1863a, b, c, 1868), but did not typify them in the present sense, since the type concept was not in practice at that time. In studying the Japanese flora, there is a need to clarify Miquel's taxa and to lectotypify them. The labels of the collections studied by Miquel usually give the locality only as “Japonia,” and the name of the collector. The specimens also bear Miquel's detemiination. Additionally, some specimens have labels with the original information in Japanese or other languages, which are useful for identifying the specimens cited in Miquel's articles. To read and understand these labels, a knowledge of Japanese is indispensable.
As an aid to those studying the Japanese flora, we have prepared a list of the taxa from Japan described by Miquel and have lectotypified a number of names for which a type specimen was not previously designated. Included are:
(1) the name proposed by Miquel, with place of publication and current literature citing those names.
An asterisk following the generic name (*) indicates that the name was published in Verslagen en Mededeelingen van de Afdeeling Natuurkunde, Koninklijke Akademie van Wetenschappen, ser. 2, volume 2 (Miquel, 1867-68; reprint 1866)2). Two asterisks (**) indicate that the name was published originally in Annales Musei Botanici Lugduno-Batavi volume 1 (Miquel, 1863a, b, c). Three asterisks (***) indicate that the name was published originally in Analecta Botanica Indica (Miquel, 1850-52). Four asterisks (****) indicate that the name was published originally in Flora van Nederlandsch Indië (1855-59).
(2) the name we currently accept
(3) the type specimens with the type status of taxa described by Miquel
(4) specimens with Miquel's determination label, but not cited in the Prolusio Florae Japonicae
(5) remarks.
Miquel's names are given with their original spelling, except where we have corrected typographical or orthographical errors.
The original spelling of the localities on the labels are given in square brackets.
The collector's names not cited in the Prolusio Florae Japonicae but written on the labels are given in square brackets. The collector's names not cited in the Prolusio Florae Japonicae and not written on the labels, but suspected from the specimens, are given in parentheses.
The number of the specimen in the herbarium at Leiden is given in square brackets and the database number is given in parentheses with the acronymy L.
Current literature cited in this work:
1) The book, Prolusio Florae Japonicae, is a reprint from Annales Musei Botanici Lugduno-Batavi, except pages, 374-392 and i-viii (Stafleu and Cowan, Taxonomic Literature, 2nd ed. 3: 518-519, 1981). Back
2) 'Over de verwantschap der flora van Japan met Aziè en Noord-Amerika' in 'Verslagen en Mededeelingen van de Afdeeling Natuurkunde, Koninklijke Akademie van Wetenschappen, ser. 2, volume 2: 65-89' was published in 1868; French issue 'Sur le caractère et l'origine de la flore du Japon' in Adansonia, volume 8: 204-263' was published in 1867-68; a preprint (as “reprint, 1-25”) was published in 1866 (Merrill and Walker, A Bibliography of Eastern Asiatic Botany: 324-325, 1938). Back