Nepenthaceae (1908 monograph)


"Nepenthaceae" is a monograph by John Muirhead Macfarlane on the tropical pitcher plants of the genus Nepenthes. It was published in 1908 in Adolf Engler's Das Pflanzenreich. It was the most exhaustive revision of the genus up to that point, covering all known species, and included detailed accounts of the structure, anatomy, and development of Nepenthes.

Content

Macfarlane recognised 58 species, including 8 newly described ones: N. anamensis, N. beccariana, N. copelandii, N. deaniana, N. hemsleyana, N. neglecta, N. philippinensis, and N. tubulosa. Macfarlane also described a number of new varieties, including N. alata var. biflora, N. alata var. ecristata, N. albomarginata var. rubra, N. hirsuta var. glabrata, N. hirsuta var. typica, N. tentaculata var. tomentosa, and N. vieillardii var. montrouzieri. The varietal name N. gracilis var. arenaria, originating from a herbarium sheet, also appeared in print for the first time in Macfarlane's monograph. The work included all manmade hybrids known at the time.
Macfarlane synonymised a number of species, including N. korthalsiana with N. gracilis, N. macrostachya with N. mirabilis, N. sumatrana with N. treubiana, and both N. teysmanniana and N. tomentella with N. albomarginata. Macfarlane restored N. edwardsiana as a species distinct from N. villosa. This decision was reversed by B. H. Danser in his 1928 work, "The Nepenthaceae of the Netherlands Indies", but is universally accepted today.
Macfarlane recognised N. × cincta as a natural hybrid between N. albomarginata and N. northiana, and N. × harryana as a natural hybrid between N. edwardsiana and N. villosa.

Species

The following 58 taxa are enumerated and detailed in Macfarlane's "Nepenthaceae". Varieties recognised by Macfarlane are also included. Taxon names are listed as they appear in the monograph, including orthographic variants, though specific epithets derived from proper nouns have been decapitalised.
  1. N. alata
  2. #var. biflora
  3. #var. ecristata
  4. N. albo-lineata
  5. N. albo-marginata
  6. #var. rubra
  7. #var. villosa
  8. N. alicae
  9. N. ampullaria
  10. #var. geelvinkiana
  11. #var. longicarpa
  12. N. anamensis
  13. N. angustifolia
  14. N. armbrustae
  15. N. beccariana
  16. N. bernaysii
  17. N. bicalcarata
  18. N. blancoi
  19. N. bongso
  20. N. boschiana
  21. N. burbidgei
  22. N. burkei
  23. #var. excellens
  24. #var. prolifica
  25. N. cholmondeleyi
  26. N. copelandii
  27. N. deaniana
  28. N. distillatoria
  29. N. echinostoma
  30. N. edwardsiana
  31. N. eustachya
  32. N. garrawayae
  33. N. gracilis
  34. N. hemsleyana
  35. N. hirsuta
  36. #var. glabrata
  37. #var. typica
  38. N. hookeriana
  39. N. jardinei
  40. N. kennedyana
  41. N. khasiana
  42. N. lowii
  43. N. macfarlanei
  44. N. madagascariensis
  45. N. maxima
  46. N. melamphora
  47. #var. haematamphora
  48. #var. tomentella
  49. N. moorei
  50. N. neglecta
  51. N. northiana
  52. N. pervillei
  53. N. philippinensis
  54. N. phyllamphora
  55. N. rafflesiana
  56. #var. minor
  57. #var. nigro-purpurea
  58. #var. nivea
  59. N. rajah
  60. N. reinwardtiana
  61. N. rowanae
  62. N. sanguinea
  63. N. singalana
  64. N. smilesii
  65. N. stenophylla
  66. N. tentaculata
  67. #var. imberbis
  68. #var. tomentosa
  69. N. treubiana
  70. N. trichocarpa
  71. N. tubulosa
  72. N. veitchii
  73. N. ventricosa
  74. N. vieillardii
  75. #var. deplanchei
  76. #var. montrouzieri
  77. N. villosa
;Nomina nuda v. incerta
  1. N. cristata
  2. N. lindleyana
In addition, Macfarlane lists N. gracillima as a possible synonym of N. albomarginata; the species are numbered 7* and 7, respectively.

Reviews and later works

At the time of its publication, "Nepenthaceae" was praised for its many high quality illustrations of both morphological and anatomical features.
Research conducted after World War I quickly rendered Macfarlane's monograph outdated. Much additional herbarium material was accumulated during this time, representing both new species and better specimens of known taxa, which highlighted issues with previous interpretations. The need for a new revision of the genus was satisfied with the publication of B. H. Danser's seminal 1928 monograph, "The Nepenthaceae of the Netherlands Indies". However, Danser's treatment did not encompass the entire range of the genus. It would not be until Matthew Jebb and Martin Cheek's 1997 monograph, "A skeletal revision of Nepenthes ", that the entire genus was once again revised in a single work.