Miscellaneous botanical notes XXV

Though Sambucus javanica Reinw. ex Bl. ranges widely from Japan to China and through the SE. Asian countries to Malesia as far as the Philippines, Celebes, and Lombok, it was in 1951 not collected in the Malay Peninsula, the Moluccas, and New Guinea. Cf. Fl. Males. 1, 4 (1951) 191. This is rather surprising as there are in East Australia two perfectly distinct species, occurring in both Queensland and New South Wales. These two species represent in Schwerin’s monograph (Mitt. Deutsch. Dendrol. Ges., 1909: 26) each a separate section because of the 3-merous and 4-merous flowers, respectively. I have studied material of both and have come to the conclusion that they must belong to one section. In the 3-merous S. australasica (Lindl.) Fritsch 4-merous flowers do occur frequently (Schwerin mentioned ‘nur sehr vereinzelt’) and in the 4-merous S. gaudichaudiana DC. 3-merous flowers occur commonly, though in minority. The number of flower parts varies also in other species, e.g. in S. canadensis, which is normally 5-merous but in which I found occasionally also 4-merous flowers.