Orthographe : Publié comme "
cœruleum". Dans l'ouvrage d'Aublet la typographie utilisée rend les ligatures
æ et œ très difficiles à distinguer, de sorte que leur identification et l'orthographe réellement utilisée à l'origine est à la source de confusions sans fin. Au sujet de Xiphidium voir la discussion de Maas & Maas-van de Kamer (Fl. Neotrop. Monogr., 61:
30. 22/06/1993
1). Voir aussi les cas de
Besleria caerulea Aubl., Hist. Pl. Guiane, 2:
631. 1775,
Lisianthius caerulescens Aubl., Hist. Pl. Guiane, 1:
207-
208,
t. 82. 1775,
Qualea coerulea Aubl., Hist. Pl. Guiane, 1:
7-
9,
pl. 2. 1775,
Spermacoce caerulescens Aubl., Hist. Pl. Guiane, 1:
57-
58,
t. 19, f. 2. 1775,
Voyria caerulea Aubl. Hist. Pl. Guiane, 1:
211,
pl. 83, f. 2. 1775.
Orthographe : 1 "The use of either "oe" or "ae" in the epitheton has been a matter of dispute. In our opinion there are two types of "a" used in Aublet's book (1775): "
a" in italics and "a" in normal letter type. The species descriptions are printed in the normal letter type. Here the difference between "oe" and "ae" is obvious, see, e.g., the description of
Qualea caerulea at page 7 (petala ... intus subcaeruleum) and at page 689
Ticorea foetida (odorum foetidum). In the index of Histoire des plantes de la guiane francoise the epitheta are printed in italics using either "oe" (in
Passiflora foetida and
Ticorea foetida), or some sign looking like "&" (made up of two more or less superposed letters?) representing "ae" (in
Urtica &stuans,
Trigonia l&vis,
Melastoma l&vigata). The name of the species in the heading of the decriptions is also printed in italics. In this letter type one can see no difference between "ae" and "oe" because the letters are placed close together, causing much confusion (see, e.gg., page 7:
Qualea caerulea and page 689:
Ticoreafoetida). The &-sign standing for "ae" is also often used here (page 390:
Trigonia l&vis).
In our opinion, the correct spelling of the species treated here has to be
Xiphidium caeruleum, because:
-"
caeruleum"is derivedf rom the classical latin word "
caelum" meaning sky.
-the description on page 33 reads clearly "petala... interiora... caerulea".
-"
caeruleum"is consistently spelled with "ae" throughout the text printed in normal letter type.
-in the index the epitheton is printed with the &-sign meaning "ae".
-the name of the species at page 33 is printed in italics where "ae" and "oe" look identical, providing no evidence as to the correct spelling."
[Maas & Maas-van de Kamer, Fl. Neotrop. Monogr., 61:
30. 22/06/1993].
