First two publications by Duchesne of Cucurbita moschata ( Cucurbitaceae )

Summary Paris, H. S.: First two publications by Duchesne of Cucurbita moschata ( Cucurbitaceae ). – Taxon 49: 303–317. 2000. – ISSN 0040‐0262. The botanical authority for Cucurbita moschata ( Cucurbitaceae ) is frequently given as (Duch. in Lam.) Duch. ex Poir., Duch. ex Poir, or just simply Poir., in reference to A. N. Duchesne's contribution to volume 2 of J. B. P. A. de M. de Lamarck's Encyclopédie Méthodique, Botanique, published in Paris by Panckoucke in 1786 and volume II of J. L. M. Poiret's Dictionnaire des Sciences Naturelles, published in 1818. However, the binomial Cucurbita moschata apparently was published first in Duchesne's Essai sur l'Histoire Naturelle des Courges, of which a number of copies exist in libraries in Paris. This small, duodecimo book consists of 46 pages but does not bear a date, place of publication, nor the name of the publisher. The Essai contains most of the same rows of print as those of the article in Lamarck's Encyclopédie and contains a note added in proof dated 18 August 1786, indicating that it too must have been published in 1786 in Paris by Panckoucke. The Essai differs from the article in the Encyclopédie by presenting the binomial Cucurbita moschata, by its completeness, and by its clarity of presentation. Cucurbita moschata was also named and described by Duchesne in A. H. Tessier and A. Thouin's Encyclopédie Méthodique, Agriculture, volume 3, page 606, which was published in 1793, also in Paris by Panckoucke. Emphasizing horticulture instead of botany, this is a shorter version of the Essai and served in part as the basis for Poiret's writing on Cucurbita in his Dictionnaire. There is a strong likelihood that the Essai was issued prior to the first part of volume 2 of the Encyclopédie Méthodique, Botanique, and is thus also the first publication of Cucurbita maxima.