"Nepenthaceae" is a monograph by Joseph Dalton Hooker on the tropical pitcher plants of the genus Nepenthes.[1] It was published in 1873 in the seventeenth and final volume of Augustin Pyramus de Candolle's Prodromus Systematis Naturalis Regni Vegetabilis, which was edited by Augustin's son, Alphonse.[1] The monograph focused primarily on new discoveries from northern Borneo.[2][3]
Published only a year after Ernst Wunschmann's "Über die Gattung Nepenthes", Hooker's monograph expanded the number of known species considerably.[2] Hooker recognised 33 species, including 7 described for the first time: N. bicalcarata, N. celebica (later synonymised with N. maxima),[2] N. echinostoma (later reduced to a variety of N. mirabilis),[2] N. hirsuta, N. khasiana, N. tentaculata, and N. vieillardii.[1] Nepenthes blancoi and N. maxima were listed as "species non satis notæ", while N. cristata was considered a "species admodum dubia".[1] Hooker also described 5 varieties: N. albomarginata var. villosa, N. boschiana var. lowii (later described as N. stenophylla),[2] N. phyllamphora var. macrantha (later synonymised with N. mirabilis),[4] N. rafflesiana var. glaberrima, and N. rafflesiana var. nivea.[1] Most of these varieties are not considered to be of taxonomic value today.[2] Hooker's concept of N. rafflesiana encompassed both N. rafflesiana and N. × hookeriana (the natural hybrid between N. ampullaria and N. rafflesiana).[5]
Hooker attempted the first subgeneric classification of the genus, dividing it into two sections. He placed N. pervillei in the monotypic Anourosperma, distinguishing it on the basis of its round seeds. All other species were subsumed in the second section, Eunepenthes.[1]
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