Mysterious Red. Glandularia peruviana, 'Bright-Red Daisy', Mercedes, Uruguay
So here I am in the pleasant small city of Mercedes on the other side of Uruguay on the Rio Negro, famous among other things for Charles Darwin's short naturalist visit here in 1832. No! don't fear! I won't go into details like his having bought the head of a Toxodon from a local farmer...
As I often do for these little pieces, I again went to great Carolus Linnaeus's first description. He usually gives earlier literature, and mostly it's quite straightforward to figure out his italics. This time, though, I was stumped a bit. He refers to Few.peruv. Well, 'Few' was easily resolved: many authors quoting Linnaeus either overtly or covertly solve that abbreviation as 'Fewillee'. Mysterious name, that. Didn't ring a bell with me, so I had to look further. Nothing. But then it seemed to me that Linnaeus or possibly his printer had written 'Few.' for 'Feu.', or else that that was the pronunciation the English had of the French name. That led me quite quickly to Louis Éconches Feuillée (1660-1732). Incidentally, it's curious how lots of authors - also modern ones - claim 'Fewillee' as their source...
To make a longer story short: our Feuillée was one of those intrepid Minim friars who traveled far and wide in the service of Science and their more mundane overseers. Young Louis traveled and collected first in the Levant and then the Antilles. Named 'Royal Mathematician' by Louis XIV of France, he sailed off to Argentina, rounded Cape Horn and collected and observed some more in Chile and Peru. Upon his return to France he published his naturalist observations in three volumes. It's the third one from which Linnaeus quotes.
As for its common name: here in Uruguay it's called Margarita Punzó, hence my 'Bright-Red Daisy'. Almost painful to the eyes and hard to photograph!
Mysterious Red. Glandularia peruviana, 'Bright-Red Daisy', Mercedes, Uruguay
So here I am in the pleasant small city of Mercedes on the other side of Uruguay on the Rio Negro, famous among other things for Charles Darwin's short naturalist visit here in 1832. No! don't fear! I won't go into details like his having bought the head of a Toxodon from a local farmer...
As I often do for these little pieces, I again went to great Carolus Linnaeus's first description. He usually gives earlier literature, and mostly it's quite straightforward to figure out his italics. This time, though, I was stumped a bit. He refers to Few.peruv. Well, 'Few' was easily resolved: many authors quoting Linnaeus either overtly or covertly solve that abbreviation as 'Fewillee'. Mysterious name, that. Didn't ring a bell with me, so I had to look further. Nothing. But then it seemed to me that Linnaeus or possibly his printer had written 'Few.' for 'Feu.', or else that that was the pronunciation the English had of the French name. That led me quite quickly to Louis Éconches Feuillée (1660-1732). Incidentally, it's curious how lots of authors - also modern ones - claim 'Fewillee' as their source...
To make a longer story short: our Feuillée was one of those intrepid Minim friars who traveled far and wide in the service of Science and their more mundane overseers. Young Louis traveled and collected first in the Levant and then the Antilles. Named 'Royal Mathematician' by Louis XIV of France, he sailed off to Argentina, rounded Cape Horn and collected and observed some more in Chile and Peru. Upon his return to France he published his naturalist observations in three volumes. It's the third one from which Linnaeus quotes.
As for its common name: here in Uruguay it's called Margarita Punzó, hence my 'Bright-Red Daisy'. Almost painful to the eyes and hard to photograph!