Scilla pancration (Steinh.) O’Shaughnessy

Turner, I. M., 2011, The contribution of Sir William Brooke O’Shaughnessy (1809 - 1889) to plant taxonomy, Phytotaxa 15, pp. 57-63 : 60

publication ID	https://doi.org/10.11646/phytotaxa.15.1.7
DOI	https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4907639
persistent identifier	https://treatment.plazi.org/id/457F87AD-0D67-3518-9BFC-FD6BFCC1F9E9
treatment provided by	Felipe (2021-06-02 14:39:23, last updated 2023-11-03 07:48:28)
scientific name	Scilla pancration (Steinh.) O’Shaughnessy
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Treatment

Scilla pancration (Steinh.) O’Shaughnessy View in CoL

Drimia pancration (Steinh.) J.C. Manning & Goldblatt View in CoL in Manning et al. (2003: 557). Squilla pancration Steinheil (1836a: 371) , (1836b: 279). Scilla pancration (Steinh.) O’Shaughnessy (1841: 662) View in CoL . Urginea pancration (Steinh.) Ogilvie (1855: 373) View in CoL . Urginea maritima subsp. pancration (Steinh.) Richter (1890: 218) View in CoL . Charybdis pancration (Steinh.) Speta (1998: 60) . Type: originally from Malta but cultivated in France.

Steinheil segregated the Mediterranean plant Scilla maritima View in CoL into a separate genus, Squilla View in CoL , and at the same time separated a new species from Scilla maritima View in CoL , which he called Squilla pancration . Stafleu and Cowan (1985) indicate that this was first published by Steinheil (1836a), who was an army doctor, in October 1836 in a French journal of military medicine, but most taxonomic works cite Steinheil’s paper ( Steinheil 1836b) from a botanical journal of November 1836. As there is no reference to the earlier publication in this work, there are no nomenclatural repurcussions relating to authors failing to cite the earliest publication.

In The Bengal Dispensatory, Scilla pancration is listed with other Scilla species. There is no author given for the name and no reference to Squilla pancration . However, as the full title of The Dispensatory indicates, Lindley’s works were consulted by O’Shaughnessy and he refers to Squilla pancration in his Flora Medica ( Lindley 1838). This indirect reference and the unique epithet make it clear that a transfer from Squilla to Scilla has been effected by O’Shaughnessy, and the combination is considerably earlier than that presently listed in IPNI. Currently the species is considered to be a member of the largely African genus Drimia ( Manning et al. 2003) . In researching the synonymy of the species I also found an earlier publication for the combination Urginea pancration . This had been attributed to de Philippe in a number of publications, but I have not been able to trace any original work. Speta (1998) provides reference to a French journal of engineering, but this is a short account of the starch extraction business run by one J. Giordano de Philippe ( Anonymous 1863), with no mention of species names.

References

Anonymous (1863) Fecule de pancratium. Le Genie Industriel 25: 306.

Lindley, J. (1838) Flora medica. Longman, Orme, Brown, Green, and Longmans, London.

Manning, J. C., Goldblatt, P. & Fay, M. F. (2003) A revised generic synopsis of Hyacinthaceae in Sub-Saharan Africa, based on molecular evidence, including new combinations and the new tribe Pseudoprospereae. Edinburgh Journal of Botany 60: 533 - 568.

O'Shaughnessy, W. B. (1841) The Bengal dispensatory and pharmacopoeia chiefly compiled from the works of Roxburgh, Wallich, Ainslie, Wight and Arnot, Royle, Pereira, Lindley, Richard, and Fee, and including the results of numerous special experiments. Bishop's College Press, Calcutta.

Ogilvie, J. (1855) A supplement to the Imperial Dictionary, English, technological, and scientific. Blackie and Son, Glasgow.

Richter, K. (1890) Plantae europeae. Tomus I. Wilhelm Engelmann, Leipzig.

Stafleu, F. A. & Cowan, R. S. (1985) Taxonomic literature. Second edition. Volume V, Sal-Ste. Regnum Vegetabile 112: 1 - 1066.

Steinheil, A. (1836 a) Observations relative aux genres Scilla et Urginea, genres nouveaux a etablir dans la famille des Liliacees sous les noms Squilla et de Stellaris. Description d'une espece nouvelle appartenant a cette famille. Recueil de memoires de medecine, de chirurgie et de pharmacie militaires 1836: 360 - 384.

Steinheil, A. (1836 b) Quelques observations relative aux genres Scilla et Urginea - deux genres a etablir dans la famille des Liliacees et description d'une espece nouvelle. Annales des Sciences Naturelles. Botanique, ser. 2, 6: 272 - 286.