Loochoo Island and Captain Beechey's Voyage

[Thomas G. Lammers]

At 10:33 AM 05-01-98 +0100, Olivier De Clerck wrote:

>Can somebody help me out. I'm looking for a geographical locality
>called 'Loochoo Island'. It is the type locality of Dictyota
>spinulosa (an unusual algal species), described by W.H. Harvey in
>Hooker & Arnott, The Botany of Beechey's Voyage (1838: 275). I have a
>feeling Loochoo should be situated somewhere near north of Taiwan,
>southern Japan, but I can't find any indication in an atlas. Did it
>change name?

This is an old transliteration for the Ryukyu Islands, which stretch between
Japan and Taiwan and include Okinawa.


Thomas G. Lammers

Classification, Nomenclature, Phylogeny and Biogeography
of the Campanulaceae, s. lat.

Department of Botany
Field Museum of Natural History
Roosevelt Road at Lake Shore Drive
Chicago, Illinois 60605-2496 USA

e-mail:    tlammers at fmnh.org
office:          312-922-9410 ext. 317 (voice-mail)
home:     630-759-4280
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http:    www.fmnh.org/candr/academic_affairs/collection_report/cv_lammers.htm

-----------------------------------------------------
Malapropism of the Day:

"Oh!  What kind of plant is it?"
"It's an 'Audrey Junior'!"
"Well, is that all?  I mean, doesn't it have a scientific name?"
"Yes, of course, but who could denounce it?"

              -- "Little Shop of Horrors" (1960)