A note on the chestnut vine and Séraphin Mottet’s ‘Dictionnaire pratique d’horticulture et jardinage’ (1892–1899)

The discovery, introduction and naming of the chestnut vine (Tetrastigma voinierianum, Vitaceae), a Vietnamese plant, is examined and bibliographic citation corrected. The 173 at the time of writing disregarded new species names and new combinations made in Seraphin Mottet’s Dictionnaire Pratique d’Horticulture et Jardinage (1892–1899) include six names in current use, hitherto attributed to later authors. All the other Mottet novelties, as well as the 125 disregarded in Nicholson’s ‘mother volume’, his Illustrated Dictionary of Gardening (four names in current use) and its later Century Supplement (22) have been passed to IPNI editors as have 15 from Bois’s Dictionnaire d’Horticulture Illustre: none disturbs current nomenclature save six changes in authority. Many species introduced to cultivation by Veitch were much cited by Mottet and Nicholson but were first published in Veitch catalogues, necessitating a new name in Miconia (Melastomataceae) and seven changes in authority in names in current use.