The Discovery of Sullivant's Wilkes U.S. Exploring Expedition Hepaticae. The "Fuegian" Specimens

Abstract

The hepatics collected by the Wilkes Expedition (1838-1842) werefound at the Institut ftr Allgemeine Botanik at Hamburg. The author gives a list of the 59 Fuegian collections, updates the nomenclature of the species contained, provides transcriptions of the original labels and describes the drawings that were included. Only a few of the hepatic species that came to Sullivant's hands from the U.S. Exploring Expedi- tion (1838-1842) were described by him (1849, 1850) as new species. From Sayre's report in this journal (1975) it is to be understood that around 1860 or earlier the whole hepatic collection was sent by Sullivant to K. M. Gottsche in Germany, who apparently did not receive them. No references to these specimens have ever been found in the liter- ature since. K. M. Gottsche, although an active phy- sician, was a very well-known hepaticologist who lived in Altona, a suburb of Hamburg, Germany. His herbarium, later housed at Berlin-Dahlem, was destroyed during World War II. Sayre's article attracted attention to the existence at the Farlow Herbarium (FH) of Sullivant's draw- ings that correspond to the species described in 1849 and 1850, which in the absence of the type speci- mens, would be available as lectotypes in accor- dance with Art. 9, note 1, of the International Code of Nomenclature (actually ICBN 9.3). She listed all the illustrated species.