Sarracenia. Sarracenia flava (left). Sarracenia purpurea (right). Both from Britton and Brown 1897.

The standard explanation for the dedication of the genus Sarracenia is that Michel Sarracin de 1’Etang (1659-1734), physician at the Court of Quebec, sent the first specimens of at least S. purpurea to Europe (Fernald 1950, Quattrocchi 1999). However, Diggs et al. (1999) were not caught in that trap. They wrote simply that the name was dedicated to Sarracin. Indeed, a survey of the synonyms published by Linnaeus ([1753] 1957) makes it clear that both S. flava and S. purpurea were known in Europe before Sarracin was born. Plants now called S. flava were known to Matias de 1’Obel before 1570, and those now called S. purpurea were discussed by Gaspar Bauhin in 1623.