History of The Genus
The early history of the genus Pachypodium demonstrates the typical process of a taxon becoming a new genus. Initially debate occurred over if Pachypodium belonged to the genus Echites or if it constituted a separate genus. Pachypodium were first published as a unique genus, separate from Echites, by Leandley in 1830.
Then the debate centered on the nomenclature of species uniquely found in continental Southern Africa. That changed when, in 1892, Baker contributed the first species accepted into the genus from Madagascar. The degree of speciation then turned to Madagascar, where the count of species far exceeds those on the mainland.
In 1907, Costantin and Bois constructed the first monograph, of Pachypodium, in which they enumerated 17 species, where ten were from Madagascar and seven were from continental southern Africa.
Read more about this topic: Pachypodium
Famous quotes containing the words history of the, history of, history and/or genus:
“This is the greatest week in the history of the world since the Creation, because as a result of what happened in this week, the world is bigger, infinitely.”
—Richard M. Nixon (1913–1995)
“It’s a very delicate surgical operation—to cut out the heart without killing the patient. The history of our country, however, is a very tough old patient, and we’ll do the best we can.”
—Dudley Nichols, U.S. screenwriter. Jean Renoir. Sorel (Philip Merivale)
“I assure you that in our next class we will concern ourselves solely with the history of Egypt, and not with the more lurid and non-curricular subject of living mummies.”
—Griffin Jay, and Reginald LeBorg. Prof. Norman (Frank Reicher)
“Methinks it would be some advantage to philosophy if men were named merely in the gross, as they are known. It would be necessary only to know the genus and perhaps the race or variety, to know the individual. We are not prepared to believe that every private soldier in a Roman army had a name of his own,—because we have not supposed that he had a character of his own.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)