188 MB. BENNETT ON THE NOMENCLATUBE 



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Note on the preceding Communication. 

 By John J. Benne^j?; Esq., P.E.S., Sec, L.8. 



[Bead February 4th, 1858.] 



Since the receipt of M. Fee'^s paper, I have carefully examined 

 Sauvages's Letters to LiimsBus, preserved among the Linnean 

 Correspondence in the Society's Library, and have found in them 

 several passages entirely confirmatory of M. Fee's conclusions, 

 although they invalidate the force of some of his arguments. 



The first of these passages is contained in a letter from Sauvages 

 dated S^t. 14th, 1745, in which the learned Professor of Mont- 

 f ellier transeribes for Liimseus his characters of the genua " Buf- 

 fonia, in honorem D. de Buffbn, Ac. Reg. Par." In a subsequent 

 letter, imder the date of October 26th in the same year, he supplies 

 . an amended character of Buffbnia^ on which Linnseus has noted 

 ill the margin " optime." Sauvages adds : — " banc mihi commu- 

 nicavit Mediciuse studiosus D. Marchant oculatissimus." He 



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- transmits a specimen, and adds, "Ignosce, quseso, colendissime 

 amice, -si coram £e plantam novo nomine generico indigitare ausim : 

 hoc me judicio subjicio; tuum est mea omnia emendare/' The 

 Dissertation in which Linnaeus first published the genus "Bu- 

 FONIA. Autore Fr. de Sauvages ^^ bears date June 15th, 1747, 

 and in a letter of the date of Sept. 15th, 1747, after hearing of 

 this publication, Sauvages has the following passage, which is 

 conclusive as to the animus both of Linnaeus and himself in regard 

 to Buffbn : — " Pergratum et mihi et 111^ D. de Biiflfon, horti Beg. 

 Paris. Praefecto, et Academise Parisinae Socio meritissimo, vide- 

 bitur, quod nomen illius generi novo plant ae eujusdam inditum 

 fuerit et sic impiortalitati consecratxmi : cum primxma hie liber 

 [Diasertatio nempe resp. Dassow, "Nova Plantarum Genera"] 

 Lutetiam appulerit, scribam ad 111. Buffbn ut tua et mea erga 

 ipsum ofi&cia extollam." The only other reference to the subject 

 that I can find in the Letters is under date of Sept. 18th, 1753, 

 where, in answer to Linnseus's statement of Loefiing's observation 

 that he found four stamina in each flower, Sauvages says, " Buf- 

 fonia rite examinata est diandra ; utrum variet inter Hispanos 

 nescio. Mitto semina ut ipse videas." Throxighout the whole 

 of Sauyages's letters the name is spelled correctly with the double 



^; and it is only in the body of his work that Sauvages has (in- 



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, as Bis index shows) adopted the eironeous spelling. 



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.Tie name thus nils*spelt was published by Linnaeus in 1747, 





and it was not unta 1749, as M. Fee justly remarkfif, tliat tbei 



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