Walter Hill: his involvement with palms (Arecaceae), and notes on his herbarium and the expeditions of 1862 and 1873

Walter Hill: his involvement with palms (Arecaceae), and notes on his herbarium and the expeditions of 1862 and 1873. Austrobaileya 9(4): 489‒507. Walter Hill was the Director of the Brisbane Botanic Garden and Queensland Colonial Botanist 1855 to 1881. Botanical exploration was in its infancy in Queensland at that time, and Hill was the first botanist to record palm species on Cape York Peninsula and north-east Queensland during expeditions of 1862 and 1873 respectively. He observed or collected 18 species during these expeditions including Archontophoenix alexandrae(as Ptychosperma alexandrae), Arenga australasica (as Sagus farinifera and S. blackallii), Calamus aruensis (as Zalacca sp.), Calamus australis, Caryota albertii (as Caryota urens), Cocos nucifera (as cocoanut), Hydriastele costata (as Pinanga sp.), H. wendlandiana (as Areca sp.), Laccospadix australasicus (as Kenti), Licuala ramsayi (as Livistona sp.), Linospadix minor (as Areca minor), L. palmerianus (as Areca sp.), Livistona decora, L. drudei, L. muelleri (all as L. inermis), Normanbya normanbyi (as Cocos normanbyi), Oraniopsis appendiculata (as a ‘beautiful palm’) and Ptychosperma elegans (as Seaforthia elegans). Hill was nomenclaturally associated with seven palm taxa, only two of which, Areca minor W.Hill (Linospadix minor) and Cocos normanbyi W.Hill (Normanbya normanbyi), are accepted as valid taxa and the others are invalid names of no taxonomic standing, and include Areca northiana W.Hill ex Hemsl., Pinanga smithii W.Hill, Ptychosperma hillii W.Hill, Ptychosperma kennedyana W.Hill and Sagus blackallii W.Hill. Notes are also provided on Hill’s herbarium and the itineraries of the expeditions of 1862 and 1873 are outlined