Save
Save chapter to my Bookmarks
Cite
Cite this chapter
Print this chapter
Share
Share a link to this chapter
Free
Description: Mrs. Delany and her Circle
Concordance
Author
PublisherYale Center for British Art
PublisherYale University Press
https://doi.org/10.37862/aaeportal.00085.022
View chapters with similar subject tags
Concordance
Notes on the concordance of scientific and vernacular plant names
John Edmondson and Charles Nelson
The need for a concordance became apparent during the early stages of editing the chapters of this book. Although Mrs. Delany’s collages have been catalogued and posted online by staff of the British Museum, there were difficulties in reading some of the captions to the collages, and inconsistencies were apparent between the text of the collage labels and the names listed by Mrs. Delany in her handwritten catalogue of the collages. In addition, many of the scientific names employed by Mrs. Delany are now obsolete; some, in fact, were not validly published at the time she used them, and others assigned plants to a different genus from the one that is currently recognised.
Because of the difficulties of rendering handwriting in printed form, the following conventions have been adopted when citing scientific names in the volume essays:
Names in single quotation marks and roman lettering are taken directly from the collage labels. By contrast, accepted modern scientific names (the “binomials,” genus and species) are italicised. In John Edmondson’s essay, which discusses nomenclature, the authors of the scientific names (the “authorities,” for example L. abbreviation for Linnaeus) are also included, but they are otherwise omitted throughout the volume. For clarity and brevity, authorities are also omitted from the modern Latin name column of the concordance. Names of plants cited from sources other than the collages are given in double quotation marks to distinguish them from the collage names and from a few cultivar names, which appear in single quotes by international convention. Vernacular (mostly English) names also appear in roman lettering.
In transcribing the handwritten labels, long ‘s’ letters have been modernised but ligatures are quoted as written. Ligatures are not permitted in modern scientific names, hence ‘Æsculus’ is now written as Aesculus.
The full list of Delany collages is available online, and a complete version of the concordance (including plants not mentioned in this book) has been compiled for possible later publication. This will also contain information gleaned from [Mary Delany?], A Catalogue of Plants Copyed from Nature in Paper Mosaick (1778; fig. 265), which has not been systematically scanned during the present phase of research.
~
Description: Title page, A Catalogue of Plants Copyed from Nature in Paper Mosaick, Finished in...
Figure 265: [Mary Delany?], title page, A Catalogue of Plants Copyed from Nature in Paper Mosaick, Finished in the Year 1778, and Disposed in Alphabetical Order According to the Generic and Specific Names of Linnaeus ([London], 1778). British Library
In determining the correct identities of the plants depicted in the collages, we are indebted to: Dr David E. Allen (Rubus), Dr David Hunt (Harrisia), Myles Irvine (Passiflora), Dr Mattias Iwarsson (Leonotis), Mark Laird (Phlox), Dr J. Manning (Arctotis, Tritonia), Professor D. M. Porter (Hymenocallis) and Dr E. G. H. Oliver (Erica).
The following notes apply to the various columns in the concordance table, reading from left to right.
Delany Collage label
This column lists the names written on the labels attached to the recto (front) side of the collage. A colon indicates that part of the name has been omitted, e.g., Geran:m for Geranium. A forward slash indicates a line break. Normally the vernacular name follows the scientific one, but in some cases there is an attribution to a botanist (e.g., Solander), usually where the name was unpublished at the time of writing. Occasionally the garden provenance is given, though this is more often written on the verso (back) of the sheet.
Delany list: Latin name
The names employed in the handwritten catalogue of the Delany collages are listed here. In the full list, a long dash is often employed where there is repetition of a generic name; in these instances, the name is added in square brackets. Attributions of authorship are often latinised, so of Solander’ in the label column becomes ‘Solandri’.
Delany list: vernacular name
Vernacular names taken from the manuscript list or added by the cataloguer are listed in this column, with an expanded version of the names that were abbreviated.
Vol. / Page
The volume number and sequential sheet number of each collage is given here. Some collages previously exhibited at the British Museum are now stored separately in their mounts, but as displays change periodically we have not attempted to give temporary locations (these can be ascertained by consulting the online catalogue).
BM acc. no. suffix
The final numerical element of the British Museum registration (accession) number is listed here. Its prefix 1897,0505. has been omitted to save space.
Source of plant material
This, and the following two columns, list information written on the verso (rear) of the sheets. No attempt has been made to list the Linnaean classes; the online catalogue transcribes them (sometimes inaccurately). This column lists the garden source of the plant illustrated in the collage. Where the garden source can be confidently or tentatively inferred from the name of the donor, this additional information is given in square brackets.
Donor of plant material
The name of the donor of the plant material is listed here, surname first except for Queen Charlotte. Where their forename has been abbreviated or omitted, this is given in square brackets.
Date on verso
Most of the collages are dated on the verso. Some of the earliest collages were dated only to the year.
Modern Latin name
The modern scientific name is given, omitting the authorities. In the case of cultivar names only those that can be given with certainty are provided, for example, Hyacinthus orientalis ‘Ophir’. For those which have no certain or definitive name, the term “cultivar” follows the Latin name. The names of other subspecific taxa are given in the conventional manner, using abbreviations subsp. (subspecies), var. (varietas) and f. (forma), between the specific epithet and the taxon’s Latin epithet. For example, the pink-blossomed forma of the strawberry tree is correctly named Arbutus unedo f. rubra.
Where an identification is tentative, the abbreviations ‘aff.’ (affinity) or ‘of.’ (compare) are sometimes variously used to express uncertainty.
~
Description: laird concordance_p. 268-269
 
~
Description: laird concordance_p. 270-271
 
~
Description: laird concordance_p. 272-273