Genus Calomeria

Gk. kalos = beautiful; meris = a part, portion. In 1804, the year of Napoleon Bonaparte’s and Joséphine de Beauharnais’ coronation, Joséphine asked French botanist, Étienne Pierre Ventenat (1757–1808) to name a flower in Napoleon’s honour. Ventenet could not name the flower ‘Napoleona’ as Pallissot de Beauvois used that name in his Flora of Oware and Benin (1802), and ‘Bonapartea’ was used by Messrs. Ruiz and Pavon in their Flora of Peru. Ventenat named a newly found plant Calomeria, which is thought to be ‘an oblique, complimentary reference to Napoleon Bonaparte’ (Davesgarden. com). Calomeria can be translated as ‘the Greek equivalent of bon partie,’ (source: Botanophilia in 18th Century France) which is a word play on ‘Buonaparte’ and French for ‘good part’ or bon en partie = good in parts. Ventenat is alleged to have said the name would give, loosely translated, ‘[T] he Emperor some small show of gratitude that he is entitled to expect from all those who cultivate the arts and sciences.’