Pereskia

Pereskia Mill. (1754)

🌵 Author(s)	Philip Miller
🌵 Published in	Gard. Dict. Abr., ed. 4: [1026] (1754)
🌵 Type	Pereskia aculeata

Etymology

Pereskius + Latin -ĭa, the recommended suffix to form plant genus names from personal names that end with a consonant (Rec. 60B.1(b), International Code of Nomenclature). Named for French humanist, historian and astronomer Nicolas-Claude Fabri de Peiresc (1580-1637), who latinized his own name as Peireskius. In the 19th century the “corrected” spellings Peirescia and Peireskia were introduced, but a 1943 proposal to conserve Peireskia over Pereskia (Janchen in Feddes Repert. Spec. Nov. Regni Veg. 52: 147, 155. 1943) was unanimously declined (Taxon 3(4): 119. 1954) and today the original spelling Pereskia is again universally accepted. See also Pereskiopsis.

Leuenberger (in Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 41: 4-5. 1986):

The pre-Linnean generic name Pereskia dates back to Plumier (1703) […]. Flower, fruit, and seed were illustrated, and a lengthy laudatio commemorated the merits of the French scholar Nicolas Claude Fabri de Peiresc (1580-1637), latinized by Plumier as “Nicolaus Fabricius Peireskius, Senator Aquisextiensis.”

Plumier’s spelling of the generic name was nevertheless Pereskia, probably reflecting the correct French pronunciation, as Weber (1898a) clear-sightedly explained. Both Linnaeus (1753) (Cactus pereskia) and Miller (1754) (Pereskia) retained this spelling, which is therefore nomenclaturally correct.

Subsequent authors modified the spelling to “Peirescia” (Zuccarini, 1837; Pfeiffer, 1837a, 1837b; Salm-Dyck, 1850), “Perescia” (Lemaire, 1838), and “Peireskia” (Schumann, 1898; Vaupel, 1925), assuming that “Pereskia” was an error.

Sometimes awkward polemics, speaking of a mutilation of the name of the person to be honored, have continued on the subject ever since (Dolz, 1937; Buxbaum, 1940; Backeberg, 1966; Ritter, 1979), disregarding the fact that Werdermann (1937) also had demonstrated not only Plumier’s obvious intention of latinizing the name in this spelling (mentioned four times in the publication, hence not a typographical error), but also its correctness under the International Rules of Botanical Nomenclature. The same applies today under the current International Code.

Pereskia Vell. (Fl. Flumin. 34. 1829) is a genus in the family Celastraceae.