March 19. 1837
My Dear Sir
Now is the time for you to publish your opinion about Chryseis. I find upon sitting down to write the letterpress of the Botanical Register <1> that for the 1st of next of month that I have a species of Eschscholtzia to say something about If you will give me a written note explaining why you would change the present name & substitute the other I will adopt your view & act upon it by suppressing Eschholzia <2> (the scratches stand for consonants).
Esch<imimia?> was a name of Chamissos; <3>
Elsholtzia, of Willd. <4> named in fact after the same man, <5> and long previously, is adopted by Bentham <6> and no doubt is a permanent genus
I see no objection to Chryseis; for the genus to which that name was given by Cassini, <7> is reduced very properly to Centaurea.
Let me hear from you on Tuesday
Yours faithfully
John Lindley
Henry Fox Talbot Esq
Notes:
1. Edwards’s Botanical Register or Ornamental Flower-garden and Shrubbery …. Lindley was editor from 1826.
2. Probably a phonetic spelling of ‘Eschholzia’ and/or ‘Eschscholzia’, given by Adelbert von Chamisso.
3. Adelbert von Chamisso (1781–1838), German botanist and poet of French descent; director of the Berlin Botanical Gardens. He wrote Peter Schlelmihl, [See Doc. No: 01178, and Doc. No: 01179].
4. Karl Ludwig Willdenow (1765–1812), German botanist.
5. Johann Friedrich Eschscholtz (1793–1831), Russian botanist.
6. George Bentham (1800–1884), philosopher & botanist.
7. Probably Alexandre Henri Gabriel de Cassini ( ca.1781–1832).