Carex goyenu Petrie

Carex goyenii Petrie, Trans. N. Z. Inst. 14: 363. 1882 (goyeni).

Head of Lake Wakatipu, 1,100 feet, D. Petrie (No. 41 to Cheeseman) in Herb. Auckland Muscum No. 2616. (There is no specimen in Petrie's herbarium at the Dominion Museum.)

Cheeseman (Trans. N.Z. Inst. 16: 433. 1884; Man. N.Z. Flora 821. 1906 and ed. 2- 265. 1925; Illustr. NZ Flora Pl. 215 excl utricle. 1914) understood the above species to be C. raoulii and his descriptions refer to C. goyenii only; Hooker (Handb.

N.Z. Flora 1: 314. 1864) and Kukenthal (Pflanzenr. Heft 38: 687. 1909) include both species under C. raoulii. Boott's figure (Illustr. Carex 3: 109, Pl. 333. 1862) has not been seen.

Kukenthal (l.c. p. 689) maintains C. haasteana Boeck. as a “forma” of C. raoulii Boott. Boeckeler's Type (“In Nova Selandia leg. Haast. Herb. reg. Berolin.”) was destroyed in an air-raid on Berlin in 1943 (Dr. G. Buchheim pers. comm.) and I have been unable to locate a duplicate. The Haast specimen of C. goyenii Petrie which is mounted with the Type of C. raoulii Boott (see Plate 46), does not answer to Boeckeler's description (Flora 61: 168. 1878) nor can I match any other specimen which I have seen so that I cannot select the necessary Neotype. (I am not sure that C. haasteana Boeck. is not an earlier name for C. wakatipu Petrie.)

I prefer therefore to adopt Petrie's name, which has a verifiable Type, rejecting the older name C. haasteana Boeck. as a nomen confusum, at least until the latter can be identified beyond reasonable doubt.