I guess one thing to keep in mind was that at the time a lot of these plants were just being discovered and their knowledge was far less comprehensive than ours is now. I've see the same thing in orchids when I've read up on their history; plenty of plants were given varietal or species names when often they were just variations within a species (colour forms being a common example that doesn't really warrant a separate taxon).
I don't think we're going to get a concrete answer, but I think we can narrow it down based on the descriptions of the plant and bulb, at least.
