Edmond BOISSIER (Geneva 1810-1885), one of the most importan - Lot 5

Lot n° 5
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400 - 500 EUR
Edmond BOISSIER (Geneva 1810-1885), one of the most importan - Lot 5
Edmond BOISSIER (Geneva 1810-1885), one of the most important Swiss botanists, he described several thousand new species; author of Flora orientalis (5 volumes, 1867-1884), his herbarium and library are preserved at the Geneva Conservatory and Botanical Garden. 2 autograph letters signed [probably addressed to botanist and mycologist Casimir Roumeguère (1828-1892), Toulouse (the letters are in a folder annotated in his hand)]. 6 pp. in-8. Geneva, May-Nov. 1860. One letter slightly stained. On Euphorbia and their classification. He thanks him for the two Euphorbia he sent him. "I can only classify (reclassify?) E. Chaixiana as a form of Sylvatica for the time being, since you have abandoned the stem character [...] because I have specimens from southern Europe and Asia Minor that are neither quite E. Chaixiana nor quite Sylvatica. It has happened to me several times already that forms which seem distinct when we are only concerned with a particular flora, that of France for example, become much less so (?) when we take the whole group considered in its entire geographical area. I'm not saying that I'm absolutely against these species (called critics), but I'm just saying that it's very often difficult to characterize them in a general work. It is very interesting to study them in a restricted Flora, and it is through research of this kind that we will undoubtedly arrive at the truth. As for E. Delorti, it is one of the maritime plants related to E. Terracina L., of which it has all the essential characters (the cornicle in particular, with a kind of beak, is quite remarkable in this species). E. Terracina varies greatly in appearance according to herbarium specimens and also according to the testimony of botanists from southern Europe, and if this species is to be accepted in its entirety, your plant must necessarily be included. I have specimens almost similar to yours from Italy, the Canaries, etc. [...]". [...] ". The second letter is also devoted to this plant. "It is already several months since I completed the study of Euphorbia that you kindly entrusted to me [...]".
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