OBSERVATIONS ON SARRACEN1A 3 



Dr. Sarrasin, de Quebec, qui vers 1730 lui envoya du Canada la 

 premiere Espece connue." The date, as well as the latter part, is 

 erroneous, but Sarrasin may have lived till after 1730, for Kalm 

 was there in 1749, when the Quebec naturalist's death seems to 

 have been fresh in mind. 



In Catesby's Flora of the Carolina^ in Gronovius's Flora Vir- 

 ginica, and in Linnasus's Hortus Cliffortianus, Tournefort's generic 

 spelling is retained, but Linnaeus (Species Plantar um, ii. 510 (1753) ) 

 changed it to Sarracenia, a terminology that was generally accepted 

 till 1824. Then Hoffmannsegg J introduced alike confusion and 

 doubt into the situation by confounding the Quebec naturalist with 

 Dr. Jean Antoine Saracen, of Lyons, and by insisting that since 

 Tournefort spelt his correspondent's name Sarrazin, the genus 

 should be written Sarrazinia, "in honorem D. M. quondam Celebris 

 gallici, Sarrazin M ; accordingly he adopted his new form. From 

 that time to the present day this mixiug up of the two authors has 

 been largely perpetuated. It seems appropriate, therefore, that the 

 separate identity of the Lyons naturalist should be clearly esta- 

 blished. Had Hoffmannsegg carefully perused the Isagoge in Rem 

 Herbarium, prefixed to and consecutively paged with Tournefort's 

 Institutiones, he could not have failed to discover that two natura- 

 lists of somewhat similar name had lived about a century apart. 

 Thus, on p. 37 of Isagoge, Tournefort writes: "Cum Camerario 

 conjungi debet Janus Antonius Sarracenus Lugdunseus, cujus 

 demum summa cura et diligentia Dioscoridis opera si pristinae 

 dignitati non fuerint restituta, summum tamen nitorem adepta 

 sunt : nee adeo multum superest quod intelligi nequeat, si Con- 

 ringio credamus. Sarracenus enim plurimorum codicum potitus 

 et cseterorum interpretum labore adjutus," &c. ; and on p. 65 : 

 " Lignonius demum et Sarracenus viri optimi, quorum prior in 

 insulis Americanis, alter in Canada Kegis mandato plantarum in- 

 quisitioni incumbunt. 



In spite of the above clear distinctions, Hoffmannsegg credited 

 the Quebec naturalist with the names Jean Antoine, and this has 

 led subsequent botanists astray. Thus Wittstein, in his Hand- 

 ivorterbuch, ed. 2, 787 (1856), condenses the history of the genus 

 thus: — " Sarracenia, L. Nach Jean Antoine Sarrasin, Arzt in 

 Lyon, gab 1598 eine Uebersetzung des Dioscorides heraus. — Ein 

 anderer Sarrasin, Arzt in Quebeck in der ersten Halfte des 18. 

 Jahrhunderts, schrieb iiber die Naturgeschichte Canadas." It will 

 be observed here that Wittstein wrongly credits the dedication of 

 the genus to the Lyons physician, and only refers to the real 

 recipient of that honour. It is scarcely surprising, therefore, that 

 Pritzel, in his Thesaurus (p. 278), falls into a similar mistake: 

 " Sarrasin, Jean Antoine, Arzt in Lyon, Uebersetzer des Dioscorides 

 (Sarracenia, L.).* Lyon 25 April 1547, t Lyon 29 Nov. 1598." This 

 mistaken dedication of the genus has been perpetuated up even to 

 the present day, and in careful manuals ; in Britton and Brown's 

 Flora of the N. States and Canada, ii. 159 (1897), we read, "Named 





J Verzeiehnis* der Pjlanzenculturen, 223 (1824). 



B 2 



