This section is from the book "The Gardener's Monthly And Horticulturist V27", by Thomas Meehan. See also: Four-Season Harvest: Organic Vegetables from Your Home Garden All Year Long.
"G." asks: - " What was the name of the man from whom the genus Diervilla got its name ? His name is variously given as Dierville, Diéreville, (acute accent on first e,) Dièreville, (grave accent,) etc".
Linnaeus, in Hortus Cliffortianus, says the name was given by Tournefort in compliment to a French surgeon, named Dierville, who was the first to introduce it "from Acadia, North America," to Europe. As the names introduced into botany follow the Latin or Greek pronunciation, no matter how the person's name may have been pronounced by his own countrymen, this one will be Diervilla; the accent being on the third syllable, as if written Dier-villa.
 
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