Leo wrote: "I have a hunch it was Philippe-Isidore Picot de Lapeyrouse the natural philosopher, and not Jean-François de Galaup, comte de Lapérouse, the explorer who vacationed in Maui, Hawaii." You're right about the person in question, Leo, but we had already established that thanks to the information provided by Mark Mazer, At this point, for me at least, the question is which spelling is proper: Lapeyrousia or Lapeirousia? Jim McKenney