188 ME. BENNETT ON THE NOMENCLATUKB 



Note on the preceding Communication. 

 By John J. Bennett, Esq., E.E.S., Sec. L.S. 



[Read February 4th, 1858.] 



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

 Sauvages's Letters to Linnaeus, 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 Sauvagea 

 dated Sept. 14th, 1745, in which the learned Professor of Mont- 

 pellier transeribes for Linnaeus his characters of the genus " Buf- 

 fonia, in honorem D. de Bufl^on, Ac. Beg. Par." In a subsequent 

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

 an amended character of Bvffonia^ on which Linnaeus has noted 

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

 nicavit Medicinae studiosus D. Marchant oculatissimus." He 

 transmits a specimen, and adds, '* Ignosce, quaeso, colendissime 

 amice, si coram te plantam novo nomine generico indigitare ausim : 

 hoc me judicio subjicio ; tuum est mea omnia emendare." The 

 Dissertation in which Linnaeus first pubKshed the genus "Bu- 

 roNiA. 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 Buffon : — " Pergratum et mihi et 111° D. de Buffbn, horti Eeg. 

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

 bitur, quod nomen illius generi novo plantae cujusdam inditum 

 fuerit et sic immortalitati consecratum: cum primum hie liber 

 [Dissertatio nempe resp. Dassow, "Nova Plantarum Grenera"] 

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

 ipsum officia extollam." The only other reference to the subject 

 that I can find in the Letters is under date of Sept. 13th, 1753, 

 where, in answer to Linnaeus' s statement of Loefling's observation 

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

 fonia rite examiaata est diandra ; utrum variet inter Hispanos 

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

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

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

 advertently, as his index shows) adopted the erroneous spelling. 



The name thus mis-spelt was published by Linnaeus in 1747, 

 and it was not until 1749, as M. Pee justly remarks, that the 



