THE CITATION OF THE NAME ⟨ITALIC⟩ENCEPHALARTOS HILDEBRANDTII⟨/ITALIC⟩Leonard E. NewtonDepartment of Botany, Kenyatta University, P.O. Box 43844, Nairobi 00100, Kenya.lnewton@avu.orgEncephalartos hildebrandtii (Zamiaceae) is an East African cycad species, occurring in the dry coastal forests of Kenya and Tanzania. In the standard flora for the area (Melville, 1958) the name is cited as follows:Encephalartos hildebrandtii A. Br. & Bouché, Ind. Sem. Hort. Berol. 8 (1874).The same reference appears in me Index Kewensis, in both the original printed work and the Internet version (http://www.ipni.org). Normally, authors would assume that the citation in the Index Kewensis and in a standard flora would be correct, and that there is no need to check with the protologue (the original publication of the name). Presumably this is why the same citation is given by later authors, of which recent examples are Beentje (1994) and Hill & Stevenson (1999).The indication of a nomenclatural author after a plant name is intended to add to precision in the application of names, because there are cases where the same name has been applied to different taxa by different authors. Such names are called homonyms. Many periodicals now require authors to cite nomenclatural authors in accordance with recommended abbreviations in the listing by Brummitt and Powell (1992), and this requirement prompted the investigation reported here. In the Brummitt and Powell list the abbreviation "A. Br." is used for Addison Brown (1830-1913). According to Barnhart (1965), Addison Brown was a US- American botanist, but there is no indication of his botanical activities. Brummitt and Powell list three people with the surname Bouché, but the one who should be cited as "Bouché" died 18 years before the name Encephalartos hildebrandtii was published. He was Peter Carl Bouché (1783-1856). The other two in the list are Carl David Bouché (1809-1881), to be abbreviated as "C. D. Bouché", and Pierre M. Bouché (dates not given), abbreviated as P. M. Bouché. As Pierre M. Bouché was shown as a specialist in algae it seemed likely that the author of the cycad name is Carl David Bouché.The next step was to look at the protologue in order to check the identity of the authors. The publication (Braun et al., 1874) was located in the herbarium library of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, but there was a problem. The name of this species does not appear on page 8. Fortunately the publication is not a long document and the description of Encephalartos hildebrandtii was soon found on page 18. It seems that the original erroneous page reference in the Index Kewensis has been copied by all later authors and nobody else has looked at the protologue for well over 100 years.In the protologue the authors are shown as A. Braun and C. Bouché. The first name eliminates Addison Brown, and also eliminates the abbreviation "A. Br." if we are to follow the recommendations of Brummitt and Powell. The first author's full name was Alexander Karl (Carl) Heinrich Braun. He was born in Regensburg on 10 May 1805 and died in Berlin on 29 March 1877. The full name is shown by Brummitt and Powell, where the recommended citation is "A. Braun".As indicated above, in the list by Brummitt and Powell there are two people called Bouché whose initials include "C." and only one of those was alive when the plant name was published, but his full name is Carl David Bouché. Confirmation that this is indeed the co- author of the cycad name is found in the Barnhart list (Barnhart, 1965), where it is stated that Carl David Bouché (born 4 June 1809, Berlin; died 27 September 1881, Berlin) collaborated with A. Braun.Further confirmation of the authorship is given by Stafleu and Mennega (1995). The 1874 edition of the Berlin Index Seminum is listed, with reference to the descriptions by Braun and Bouché of plants collected in Africa by Hildebrandt. Encephalartos hildebrandtii commemorates Johannes Maria Hildebrandt (1847-1881), an amateur botanist from Dusseldorf, Germany, who collected plants in north-east Africa, Arabia, Madagascar and Comores (Beentje, 1998). He died in Antananarivo, Madagascar, at the age of 34 years.My starting references were the Flora of Tropical East Africa (Melville, 1958) and the Index Kewensis, but several books on cycads have appeared in recent years. A few of these give the name Braun in the authorship of the name, though one has "A. Brown". The only book to cite the authorship in the form recommended below is that by Whitelock (2002).The following conclusions can be drawn from this small investigation:1. It is often useful to check the protologue of a name.2. Whilst not obligatory, the use of Brummitt and Powell's recommendations is advisable, to avoid ambiguity.3. The name of this species should be cited as follows:Encephalartos hildebrandtii A.Braun & C.D.Bouché, Ind. Sem. Hort. Berol., 18 (1874).⟨BOLD⟩REFERENCES⟨/BOLD⟩Barnhart, J.H. (1965). Biographical Notes Upon Botanists. 3 vols. G. K. Hall & Co., Boston.Beentje, H.J. 1994. Kenya Trees, Shrubs and Lianas. National Museums of Kenya, Nairobi.Beentje, H.J. (1998). J. M. Hildebrandt (1847-1881): notes on his travels and plant collections. Kew Bulletin 53: 835-856.Braun, A., C. Koch, P. Ascherson & C. Bouché (1874). Index Seminum in Horto Botanico Berolinensi Anno 1874 Collectorum. C. Feister, Berlin.Brummitt, R.K. & C.E. Powell (eds.) (1992). Authors of Plant Names. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.Hill, K.D. & D.W. Stevenson (1999). A world list of cycads, 1999. Excelsa (Journal of the Aloe, Cactus and Succulent Society of Zimbabwe) 19: 67-72.Melville, R. (1958). Cycadaceae. In W.B. Turrill & E. Milne-Redhead (eds.), Flora of Tropical East Africa: Gymnospermae. Crown Agents, London.Stafleu, F.A. & E.A. Mennega (1995). Taxonomic Literature. Supplement III: Br-Ca. Regnum Vegetabile 132.Whitelock, L.M. The Cycads. 2002. Timber Press, Portland.