“Flore générale des environs de Paris” by F.F. Chevallier: historical, nomenclatural and bibliophilic aspects

A brief account of the life and work of the French botanist François Fulgis Chevallier (1796-1840) is presented. His classification of the plants, with particular references to cryptogams, proposed in Flore générale des environs de Paris of 1826-1828, is revisited and compared with other classifications published in France at the beginning of the 19th century. A list of new names and combinations for hepatics and mosses proposed by F.F. Chevallier in his Flora of the Paris region is presented. Altogether two names for hepatics and twenty-six names of mosses are proposed as new, nine of which were used for newly described varieties of mosses. All these names have fallen into oblivion and are not in current use except for one, Trichostomum Bruch sect. Stenotrichum Chevall. This taxon is now recognized as section Stenotrichum (Chevall.) Bednarek-Ochyra in Racomitrium Brid. Jungermannia ceratophylla Chevall. is considered to be a new synonym of Pellia endiviifolia (Dicks.) Dumort. The color plates illustrating bryophytes of the first edition of Flore générale are reproduced and modern names for taxa are given. In Annex, the copies of the Chevallier’s Flore générale kept in various libraries in Paris are compared and thoroughly described; some data on Fungorum et Byssorum Illustrationes (Chevallier, 1837) are given.