The difficulties of taxonomic attribution at the end of 19th Century: Saxifraga hervieri as a case study

By Neus Nualart, Museu Ciències Naturals Barcelona (Institut Botànic de Barcelona)

In our paper on Pourret’s names based on Salvador’s herbarium (Gavioli et al., 2024), we discussed the challenges of naming taxa in the 18th century, largely due to the limited number of published taxa and the rarely available taxonomic studies by contemporary authors. Although some of these issues appeared to be solved by the 19th century, difficulties in taxonomic naming still occasionally persisted, as illustrated in the case we present here.

The name Saxifraga hervieri was first used by Élisee Reverchon for the specimen number 1167, distributed in his exsiccata Plantes d’Espagne in 1895, as seen in the specimen preserved in the LMS herbarium at the Musée Vert in Le Mans (Fig. 1). It should be noted that an exsiccata typically consists of fascicles, reproduced in multiple identical copies, each containing a variable number of herbarium specimens. Its purpose is to serve as a scientific resource, as each specimen is identified and validated by botanists with recognized scientific credibility and authority.

Fig. 1. Specimen labeled as Saxifraga hervieri collected in Sierra de Griego (Spain) in May 1895 (LMS without number).

Élisee Reverchon (1834–1914) was a French botanical collector known for his extensive work in continental France, Corsica, Sardinia, Spain, and Algeria (Stafleu & Cowan, 1983). He was considered a professional collector, gathering numerous plant specimens from the same locality and date to sell to botanists and scientific societies (Figs. 2-3). As a result, the plants he collected are now preserved in many herbaria worldwide.

Fig. 2. Extract from page 672 of volume 59 of the Bulletin de la Société botanique de France published in 1912 where Reverchon offers 300 plants collected in Lyon (France) at 25 francs to all members of the society.

Fig. 3. Extract from a letter sent by Reverchon to Carlos Pau, a Spanish botanist, in which he offers Pau a collection of 100 plant specimens from Spain for 25 pesetas, noting that this is a good price due to Pau’s expertise as a taxonomist.

The gathering of Saxifraga hervieri preserved in the LMS herbarium was not only distributed in the Reverchon’s exsiccata Plantes d’Espagne; it was also distributed by other botanists who included it in their own exsiccatae. This is the case of Charles Magnier (1882–?), a French botanist who published the exsiccata Flora selecta exsiccata (Fig. 4) and sold it at prices between 27 and 62 francs per fascicle (Bornet & Malinvaud, 1885), depending on the rarity of the species, the number of species in the fascicle, and the scientific and aesthetic quality of the collection. Or the case of Ignaz Dörfler (1866–1950), an Austrian botanist who edited the exsiccata Herbarium normale (Fig. 5), which was commercially distributed from 1894 to 1915.

Fig. 4. Specimen distributed in the exsiccata Flora selecta exsiccata by Magnier labeled as Saxifraga hervieri collected in Sierra de Griego (Spain) in May 1895 (ANG067863).

Fig. 5. Specimen distributed in the exsiccata Herbarium normale by Dörfler labeled as Saxifraga hervieri collected in Sierra de Griego (Spain) in May 1895 (P02907712).
 

When these specimens were distributed, the name Saxifraga hervieri had not yet been formally described. On Magnier’s specimen (Fig. 4), it is noted that this name would appear in the third fascicle of a manuscript on new plants of Aragon, which Debeaux was preparing. On Dörfler’s specimen (Fig. 5), the publication location for the description is uncertain, as it states ‘Descriptio?’. This raises the question: did Reverchon and Debeaux describe this species?

Odon Debeaux (1826–1910) was a French military pharmacist, botanist, and malacologist who published 70 taxon names according to IPNI (2024). In his third fascicle of the study on new plants from Aragon, he includes Reverchon’s specimen from Sierra de Griego under the name Saxifraga albarracinensis Pau, noting that when they distributed it as S. hervieri, they were unaware that, five months earlier, Carlos Pau had published this taxon with another name, and indicating that both names—S. albarricensis and S. hervieri—correspond to the same plant (Debeaux, 1897). He also commented that since S. albarracinensis had been published first, the principle of priority required to use this name and not S. hervieri.

But the story doesn’t end there; two additional botanists who received a specimen labeled as Saxifraga hervieri felt it was necessary to formally describe and publish the name. António Xavier Pereira Coutinho (1851–1939), a Portuguese botanist and agronomist, described this species from a specimen collected in Bragança, Portugal (Figs. 6-7; Coutinho, 1913). Four years later, Heinrich Gustav Adolf Engler (1844–1930) and Edgar Irmscher (1887–1968), German botanists, published it as a variety, Saxifraga dichotoma var. hervieri, based on the specimen distributed by Reverchon in his exsiccata Plantes d’Espagne (Figs. 1 & 8; Engler & Irmscher, 1917). None of these botanitst had read Debeaux’s 1897 publication, in which he explained that it was unnecessary to publish this name since Carlos Pau had previously named the species as S. albarracinensis.

Fig. 6. Type specimen of Saxifraga hervieri collected in Bragança (Portugal) in May 1895 (P02483364).

Fig. 7. Extract of the protologue of Saxifraga hervieri in Coutinho (1913).

Fig. 8. Extract of the protologue of Saxifraga dichotoma var. hervieri in Engler & Irmscher (1917).

According to the International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants (ICN; Turland et al., 2018), the validly published name is Saxifraga hervieri Debeaux & É.Rev. ex Cout., while Saxifraga dichotoma var. hervieri Engl. & Irmsch. is illegitimate since it was published later as a superfluous name. It is important to note that the ICN determines only the legitimacy or illegitimacy of names; it does not address taxonomic criteria that treat a name as a heterotypic synonym of another when both refer to the same plant. Therefore, under the ICN, both S. hervieri and S. albarracinensis are legitimate names. However, current taxonomic criteria for the genus Saxifraga do not accept either of them, as both names are considered synonyms of Saxifraga dichotoma Willd.

The scarcity of accessible scientific publications, and the challenges in verifying existing names often resulted in duplicate or superfluous taxonomic entries. Consequently, many species were described multiple times under different names, which has increased the complexity in plant taxonomy. This historical context highlights the importance of accessible taxonomic records, a fact that is still relevant today: the accuracy and efficiency of taxonomic work depend on the availability of comprehensive resources and effective communication.

References cited

Bornet, E. & Malinvaud, E. (1885). Nouvelles. Bulletin de la Société botanique de France 32: 48.

Coutinho, A.P. (1913). A flora de Portugal (plantas vasculares) disposta em chaves dichotomicas. Lisboa, Aillaud, Albes & Cia. (Livraria Bertrand).

Debeaux, M. (1897). Plantes rares ou nouvelles de la province d’Aragon (Espagne) provenant des récoltes de M. Reverchon en 1895. Revue de Botanique, Bulletin Mensuel 15: 129–144.

Engler, E. & Irmscher, E. (1917). Saxifragaceae-Saxifraga. Das Pflanzenreich: regni vegetablilis conspectus 68: 1–654.

Gavioli, L., Nualart, N., López-Pujol, J. & Ibáñez, N. (2024). Taxa proposed by Pourret based on the specimens conserved in Salvador herbarium (eighteenth century). Plant Biosystems 158: 10–23. https://doi.org/10.1080/11263504.2023.2287529

Stafleu, F.A. & Cowan, R.S. (1983). Taxonomic literature. A selective guide to botanical publications and collections with dates, commentaries and types. Volume 7: P-Sak. Utrecht, Bohn, Scheltema & Holkema. Turland, N. J., Wiersema, J. H., Barrie, F. R., Greuter, W., Hawksworth, D. L., Herendeen, P. S., Knapp, S., Kusber, W.-H., Li, D.-Z., Marhold, K., May, T. W., McNeill, J., Monro, A. M., Prado, J., Price, M. J. & Smith, G. F. (eds.) (2018). International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants (Shenzhen Code) adopted by the Nineteenth International Botanical Congress Shenzhen, China, July 2017. Regnum Vegetabile 159. Koeltz Botanical Books, Glashütten. https://www.iapt-taxon.org/nomen/main.php


OpenEdition suggests that you cite this post as follows:
alexiacomte (January 22, 2025). The difficulties of taxonomic attribution at the end of 19th Century: Saxifraga hervieri as a case study. SciCoMove — Scientific Collections on the Move. Retrieved April 28, 2025 from https://doi.org/10.58079/134s1


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