Mabberley, Jarvis and Juniper, The name of the apple 
425 
There is no extant original material in any of the Linnaean herbaria. The name is based 
on a polynomial from Bauhin (1623) but there are no associated specimens in the 
Burser Herbarium (UPS). The Bauhin reference is to the 'Granicher' apple. Known 
from before 1650, it is Tournefort's Mains sativa, fructu subrotundo, e viridi pallescente, 
acido-dulci and Renette blanche, ou franche (Tournefort 1700: 634), referred to 'Renette 
Blanche' (white or French Renette) by Miller (1768). Linnaeus himself annotated his 
own copy (in LINN) of Species plantarum with 'Renette' after 'Bauh. pin. 433'. 
Desfontaines (1809:140) had var. prasomila for the 'reinette' and Poiret (l.c.) refers both 
Tournefort's and Linnaeus's names to his 'La reinette', adding, 'C'est la plus estimee 
de toutes: on en distingue de plusiers sortes: la reinette blanche ... la reinette grise ... la 
reinette franche'. According to the Societe National d'Horticulture de France, Section 
Pomologique (1907: 510), 'Reinette commune' and 'Reinette blanche' are synonyms of 
'Reinette Franche'. 
Although several 'Reinettes' are grown in Australia, 'Reinette Franche' seems never to 
have been grown here, though it is still in England, e.g. at Brogdale, where the neotype 
material was gathered. 
Pyrus tnalus L. var. ntbelliana L., l.c. = Malus pumila Mill. cv. 
There is no extant original material in any of the Linnaean herbaria. The name is based 
on a polynomial from Tournefort (1700: 635), who, in turn cited Poma rubelliana of 
Dioscorides (1552: 252), which is the source of Linnaeus's epithet. Tournefort called 
such trees 'Pommes de Rouveau', 'rouveau' probably being an archaic French word 
for reddish (Aymonin, P, pers. comm.), cognate with Ruellius's name for Dioscorides' 
plant which Tournefort cites. Linnaeus took up very few of the horde of apple cultivars 
discussed by Tournefort, so this one must have seemed distinctive to him, though 
perhaps he was using the name to cover the pearmains of the time in general (see 
above). Poiret, l.c., referred both the Linnaean and Tournefortian names to his 'Le 
rouveau', and included the illustration 'Zahmer [= domestic] Apfel baum') of 
Blackwell (1750-52:1.141), which was apparently of one of the standard pearmains of 
the period, and was referred here at least as early as the 1770s (Reichard [1779: 502], 
who wrote, 'Ce fruit est d'un rouge sanguin, assez agreable par sa saveur douce, 
aigrelette'). It is not discussed by Desfontaines (l.c.), and 'rouveau does not appear in 
the French catalogues we have examined or in modern dictionaries. Perhaps the 
original 'Greek' plant of Disocorides is long lost. 
Pyrus malus L. var. sylvestris L., Sp. PL: 479 (1753) = Malus sylvestris (L.) Mill. 
Type: Latvia, 'Dist. Madonensis, prope villula Grasi', V. Langenfelds 105 (neo-: RIG, 
photo seen; selected by Langenfelds, Apple-trees: 186,1991). 
Desfontaines (l.c.) had Malus communis var. sylvestris for the 'sauvageon but Moench 
(1794: 680) used M. sylvestris for Pyrus malus and Poiret (op. cit.: 560) included M. 
silvestris Bauh.' under M. communis. Indeed, in advance of the latest findings the recent 
problem over not using M. communis or M. domestica for the orchard apple largely 
stemmed from the interpretation of P. malus var. sylvestris L. Without a Greek letter in 
the protologue, var. sylvestris might appear to be referring to the 'typical' (autonymic) 
variety and might therefore be a superfluous name for var. malus (Kartesz & Gandhi 
1992). However, Dick Brummitt (K, pers. comm.), wrote, "my feeling is that [Linnaeus] 
had no concept of autonyms, and that any infraspecific epithet he published should be 
accepted as a validly published varietal name. 1 know that it is odd that he did not 
publish the alpha sign, but if he had done so I would feel that ‘sylvestris’ is still an 
atypical variety, and when he left out the sign I am not inclined to think that the 
epithet should be treated any differently ... Then I would be inclined to treat Miller's 
specific name as a new one". 
