Species Nicolsonia barbata

For Jean Barthélemy Maximilien Nicolson (1734–1773), a Dominican priest and keen naturalist from Paris and superior in Haiti. He served as a dominican superior in Léogane from 1769 until his death. On the royal command of Louis XV, Nicolson’s family published his Essai sur l’Histoire Naturelle de St Dominique (1776) posthumously. This large work (376 pages, 10 plates) describes the colony to a degree and has a chapter on archaeology, but the bulk of the book focuses on botany and the fauna and flora in the colony. Nicolson’s main ‘complaint’ was that the colonialists didn’t even have a name for most plants.