Notes on Tropical African Dodders

Abstract

My attention has been drawn to an article by Dr. Nattrass in this journal (1941, E.A. Agric. J., 6, 187-8), on the subject of Cuscuta species in East Africa. The fact that the article contains many wrong names is in no way any fault of its author. The account of the genus in the Flora of Tropical Africa (1906, 4 (2), 202-6) is exceedingly poor and inaccurate, the keys given to the species being quite useless. Moreover, whilst working at Kew during the preparation of an account of the genus for the Biological Flora of the British Isles and for the Flora of Tropical East Africa, I found that nearly half of the specimens of Cuscuta preserved at Kew were wrongly determined. Since the account of the genus for the new flora must await the completion of the Convoivuiacea' by some other worker, a task that may not be started for several years, these notes are being published to correct previous literature.