

• 



THE 



JOURNAL OF BOTANY 



BRITISH AND FOREIGN. 



OBSERVATIONS ON SARRACENIA. 



By J. M. Macfarlane, D.Sc. 



I. — History of the Generic Name* 



During recent years vigorous efforts have been made toward 

 correct determination and application of generic and specific names. 

 This has resulted in the disentangling of not a few complicated 

 webs of botanical history, and has laid bare not a few botanical 

 errors and prejudices. Until quite recently the writer did not 

 suspect that the generic name Sarracenia had other than a simple 

 and exact history ; he now finds that this history has been a 

 chequered one. Most have been aware that Tournefort wrote the 

 dedicatory name Sarracena, though he wrote the Quebec botanist's 

 name u Sarrazin " ; that Linnaeus altered this to Sarracenia; and 

 that Hoffmannsegg protested against both spellings, and suggested 

 that the genus be written Sarrazenia. The history seems to be as 

 follows. 



In 1719, Tournefort, : ' : ignoring the older names of Coilophylluw, 

 Bucanephoron, Bucanephyllon, &c, applied by his predecessors, 

 wrote: u Sarracenam appellavi a CLirissimo D. Sarrazin, Medicinse 

 Doctore, Anatomico et Botanico Regio insigni, qui eximiam hanc 

 plantam, pro summa qua me complectitur benevolentia e Canada 

 misit." As his description and figure show, he referred only to 

 S. purpurea, and in his generic dedication had in view a Canadian 

 medical man and scientist, by name Sarrasin or Sarrazin, who did 

 active work about the years 1700-1720. But in Tournefort's 

 "Explicafcio Nominura," prefaced to his Institutions*, is "Sarra- 

 cenus, Gallice Sarrazin, Medicinse Doctor peritissimus, apud Cana- 

 denses Botanicus et Anatomicus Regius, accuratissimus Rerum 

 Naturalium exploratory The above clearly shows that Tournefort 

 regarded his Quebec correspondent's name to be most neatly ex- 

 pressed in Latin as Sarracenus, and so he named his genus 

 Sarracena. At the same time, and probably wrongly, he applied 



* Institutiones, i. 057 (sphalm. 567) (1719). 



Journal of Botany. — Vol. 45. [Jan. 1907.J b 



