Siebold’s and Siebold & Zuccarini’s Names Based on Thunberg’s Names in His Flora Japonica

Abstract

Philipp Franz von Siebold explored Japan from 1823 to 1829 and studied the plants collected by himself and others, with Joseph Gerhard Zuccarini. They used Flora Japonica by Carl Peter Thunberg published in 1784, as the most reliable prior work of the flora. They, especially Siebold, named their collections according to Thunberg’s treatment, and noticed most of the species, which Thunberg considered to be identical with European or American ones, to be specifically different from them. In such cases Siebold gave a new name and cited the original name used by Thunberg. For the example, Siebold gave a new name, Lithospermum murasaki, for the plant which Thunberg treated as L. arvense L. His segregation is acceptable, although he did not write ‘excluded the type.’ According to the present International Code of Nomenclature for Algae, Fungi, and Plants (Melbourne Code), it is not clear whether Lithospermum murasaki is regarded as a superfluous name for L. arvense L. and therefore as illegitimate name, or not. In this article the authors discuss some of Siebold’s and Siebold & Zuccarini’s names for which original names appeared in Thunberg’s Flora Japonica.