Charles Plumier's drawings of American plants and the nomenclature of early Caribbean Aristolochia species (Aristolochiaceae)

Among the 1657 mostly unpublished drawings of Caribbean plants made by Char les Plumier between 1689 and 1697, 6 concern species of Aristolochia. All h ave served, either in original (kept in the Central Library of the National Museum of Natural History in Paris) or in copy (from the series drawn for Boerhaave in 1733 and studied in 1738 by Linnaeus), or as published plates base on either set, or by an associated description, as the main basis for 7 heterotypic binomials referring to 6 species. Having studied the original drawings and Plumier's correlated manuscript notes in Paris as well as the 4 extant Boerhaave copies and all relevant literature, the authors critica lly review the typification and application of the binomials concerned, des ignating lecto- or neotypes where needed and epitypes in most cases. Curren t usage of names is maintained with two exceptions. The name A. bilabiata h as, since 1966, been misapplied to the species that was previously and corr ectly known as A. oblongata, and should therefore now be rejected as a conf used name (rather than being adopted in the sense of its type, displacing A . chasmema to designate a rare endemic of Haiti, Hispaniola). A. punctata, so far considered a doubtful name, is synonymous with A. fuertesii and must be adopted in its stead for another seldom collected endemic of Hispaniola .