Browsing by Author "Gillett, J.B."
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Item Commiphora Jacq. (Burseraceae )-Englerian Species which disappear(1972) Gillett, J.B.; East African HerbariumIn attempting to revise any part of Commiphora many difficulties arise. These are in part due to the nature of the plants and the difficulty of obtaining complete material showing male and female (or hermaphrodite) flowers, leaves, fruit and bark; in part to the destruction of many types in the air raid on Berlin in 1943; and in part to the practice of describing species from inadequate, often sterile, material adopted by both the two chief workers on the genus, A. Engler and E. Chiovenda. A fourth type of difficulty is that certain names published by Engler simply disappear and are not mentioned in works where they would normally be expected to occur.Item Does Parkia occur in Ethiopia?(1965) Gillett, J.B.The genus Parkia R. Br. is not recorded from Ethiopia by Cufodontis (1955). However, in his revision of the genus in Africa, Mr. T. Hagos (1962) twice records it from Ethiopia. At the beginning of his paper he recalls having seen, in his boyhood nearly 20 years previously in Eritrea, a tree which, so he states, was a species of Parkia; he also recollects the 'sourish taste' of its fruit, which he and his family ateItem A Further Note on Erythrina Melanacantha (Leguminosae Papilionideae), Including a New Subspecies from Somalia(1972) Gillett, J.B.; East African. Herbarium,Chiovenda distinguished his var. somala from E. melanacantha var. melanacantha by its smaller leaves arid shorter calyx and standard. He also described the fruits and seeds of var. somala but did not know that they differed from those ofvar. melanacantha, which had not, at that time been collected. 'When, in 1962-3, the present author studied this species it became clear that the characters used by Chiovenda are not satisfactory for separating var. somala from the rest of the species. Although a single specimen with fruit from northern Kenya was by then available the fruits had been picked up off the ground and it seemed possible that differences between them and fruits from Somalia could be due to decay. For these reasons no distinction between var. somala and var. melanacantha was at that time upheld.Item A new species of Millettia Wight & Arn. (Leguminosae-Papiliono'ideae) from Kenya(1959) Gillett, J.B.; East African HerbariumMilletia tanaensis Gillett, sp. nov. M. usaramensi Taub. affinis; floribus praecocibus; foliolis iuventute utrinque sericeis, ellipticis, emarginatis, haud acuminatis; ramulis inflorescentiae ad nodos redactis; leguminibus fere glabris, basi sensim angustatis, differt.Item A North American Institute for the Study of the African Flora Needed(1968) Gillett, J.B.; East African Herbarium, NairobiThe U.S.A. and, to a lesser extent, Canada are making a considerable effort to help the developing countries of Tropical Africa in Agriculture, Medicine and Education. These countries also have interests of their own in promoting the supply of plant commercial products from Africa to North America and the sale of agricultural equipment and chemicals from North America to Africa.Item A Numbered Checklist of Trees Shrubs and Noteworthy Lianes Indigenous To Kenya 1970(East Africa Agriculture and Forestry, 1970) Gillett, J.B.; McDonald, P.G.; East Africa Agriculture and ForestryIn contrast to the wildlife, the plants of Kenya are relatively unknown to residents and tourists alike. This unfamiliarity is encouraged by the richness and diversity of the flora, which intimidate all but the true botanist. Quite a number of descriptive books have been written on the flora of Kenya (see Section V of the Introduction). However, it is one thing to describe a plant, but quite another actually to identify and name a speci- men in the field from such descriptions. This difficulty can be over- come by means of specimen trees and shrubs numbered so as to correspond with a numerical list. This system originally proposed by M. A. Imbert, formerly of the Kenya Game Department, will facilitate easy labelling by numbered boards of conspicuous specimens along the park routes. The numerical list has been compiled by the Kenya Forest Department in co-operation with the E.A. Herbarium. It is hoped that the adoption of this system will not be confined to the National Parks, but that other public and private authorities such as educational institutions, town and county councils, lodge and hotel keepers, will use this system. We would refer such prospective users to Part III of the Introduction. The Check-list covers indigenous species which are reputed to attain a height of at least two metres (about six feet). In addition, a few other species have been included because of their conspicuousness, ubiquity or particular interest.Item A Revision of Phaenohoffmannia Kuntze (Leguminosae-Papilionoïdeae)(1966) Gillett, J.B.; East African Herbarium, NairobiAs may be seen from the literature cited above, neither of the two names for this genus has up till now won general acceptance. Phaenohoffmannia is preferred by the latest authoritative work (Phillips, op. cit. (1951) & Hutchin- son, op. cit. (1964)) but only one of the species described in Pleiospora Harv. has a name in Phaenohoffmannia. The following points emerge from a study of the issue.Item Vermifrux Gillett (Leguminosae-Papilionoideae), a New Name for Helminthocarpon A. Rich(1966) Gillett, J.B.; East African Herbarium, NairobiThe name Helminthocarpon A. Rich. Cannot be used as it is a later homonym for Helminthocarpon Fee. Bentham and Post & Kuntze when they used Helminthocarpum and Helminthocarpus respectively, as well as other authors who have followed them, attributed these names to Richard and gave no indication that they realized that they were spelling the name differently from Richard or that they knew that Richard's name was a later homonym. They were clearly therefore either misspelling Richard's name accidentally or tacitly 'correcting' it, an illegitimate procedure under Article 73 of the ‘International Code of Botanical Nomenclature': 'the original spelling of a name must be retained'. Neither of these names has therefore been validly published. Even if they had been proposed as new names it is doubtful whether either could be accepted as they would seem to conflict with Article64 which states 'mere orthographic variants of the same name are treated as homonyms' and Article 75 which prescribes 'generic names so similar that they are likely to be confused'.Item W. G. Schimper's botanical collecting localities in Ethiopia(1838) Gillett, J.B.; East African HerbariumWilhelm Georg Schimper probably collected more type specimens of Tropical African plants than any other botanist, with the possible exception of Welwitsch. Although he lived, in the comparatively healthy Ethiopian highlands, to a ripe old age, his work has suffered more than that of most scientists from wars. His possessions in Ethiopia, including plants and manuscripts, were looted and destroyed in 1855, he was imprisoned in 1867, many of his collections and perhaps manuscripts were destroyed in the bombardment of Strasbourg in 1870 and the first set of many of his collections, which alone bore his careful and often copious field notes in full, was mostly destroyed in the bombing of Berlin in 1944. He thus published almost nothing himself and there is no full account of his life. To add to the obscurity Wilhelm Georg Schimper has often been confused with his better-known botanical relatives, his uncle Wilhelm Phillip Schimper, the bryologist, Andreas Franz Wilhelm Schimper the plant geographer, W.P.S.'s son, and Karl Friedrich Schimper the plant morphologist, W.G.S.'s brother. For example the list of collectors whose plants are in the Kew Herbarium published in Bull. Misc. Inf. Kew 1901 : 1-80 attributes W. G. Schimper's very numerous collections either to W. P. Schimper or simply to 'Schimper
