or THE GENUS BUFrONIA. 189 



offence which it has been supposed to be intended to avenge, was 

 given to Linnaeus and all other " methodists " in the preface to 

 Buffon's great work, commenced in that year. That Sauvages at 

 least felt this offence strongly will be seen by the following extracts 

 from his letters ; but that this feeling could not have influenced 

 either him or Linnaeus two years before the offence was given, is 

 equally manifest. In a letter bearing date April 3rd, 1750, after 

 referring to the attacks of Lametrie and others, Sauvages proceeds 

 as follows: — "Alterius certe ordinis sunt censores quos in te 

 nuper insurgere intelligo ; scil. D. Daubenton, vel de Buffbn, in 

 Historia Natwrdli TTniversali, quam recens edidit, et quam non- 

 dum vidi, et D. Heister in altero opusculo in quo nomenclaturae 

 plantarum leges novas protulit. Primus, seu D. de Buffon, quod 

 miror maxime, omnes methodos improbat, et contendit facilius 

 citiusque addisci historiam animalium, plantarum, &c. in individuis 

 quam in specificis genericisque descriptionibus. Anne umquam 

 putasses quod tarn absona absurda opinio in animalis rationalis 

 mentem venire potuisset ? Hoc tamen ad me scribunt, undo non 

 doleo quod a te recedit qui a ratione tam alienus est." And in a 

 letter of November 15th, 1751, he continues in the same strain, 

 referring to the Epistle to Linnaeus prefixed to his own ' Methodus 

 Foliorum,' then just published. "Yidebis," he says, "quomodo 

 paucis confutem D. Buffonem, qui existimat, mirum dictu, sine 

 uUa methodo addiscendam esse et docendam historiam naturalem, 

 quod certe ntimquam in mentem cordati hominis venerat. Malo, 

 certe, te ab homine ita transverse cogitante carptum esse quam 

 laudatum. Decorum etenim est illis displicere quibus ipsa ratio 

 displicet." 



The charge of mis-spelling the generic name of Buffonia from 

 pique or malice having fallen completely to the ground, it may be 

 worth while also to correct an error in regard to the specific name, 

 to which no less an authority than that of our distinguished 

 founder. Sir James Edward Smith, has been given in the following 

 passage of his ' English Elora ' : — " Sauvages named this genus after 

 his great countryman BufFon, who had indeed very slender preten- 

 sions to a botanical honour ; a circumstance supposed to have been 

 indicated by Linnaeus in the specific name tenuifolia^ A reference 

 to the synonymy of the plant is all that is needed to show, that 

 in this instance Linnaeus simply adhered to his usual custom of 

 adopting for his specific name, wherever practicable, a charac- 

 teristic portion of the name by which it had been previously 

 known. In this case he found a specific name admirably adapted 



