In 1735 seeds of a plant collected in
Panama by Robert Millar were donated to
Philip Miller of the
Chelsea Physic Garden in London. The plants were grown on and forwarded to the
Royal Society but with the name
Dalea. This plant was named
Browallia (
Species Plantarum 2: 631. 1753 [1 May 1753];
Genera Plantarum ed. 5, 1754) by the famous plant taxonomist Carl Linnaeus in honour of his fellow countryman and botanical colleague. Linnaeus's principles of botanical nomenclature were first expounded in
Fundamenta Botanica of 1736 and these were later elaborated, with numerous examples, in his
Critica Botanica of 1737. The book was published in Germany when Linnaeus was 29 and the title page carries a discursus by Johannes Browall. The friendship was not to last. Coombes notes "
Browallia demissa (weak). Renamed by Linnaeus from
B. elata (tall) after falling out with Browall." Browall had advised the young Linnaeus to finish his studies abroad, then marry a rich girl – even though he was already engaged to Sara Lisa Moraea. Linnaeus did, indeed, spend the winter of 1737–1738 in Leiden, travelling on to France. While abroad, he was sent news that "his best friend B." had taken advantage of his absence to court Sara Lisa Moraea and had almost succeeded in persuading her that her fiancé would never return to Sweden. However, the bishop's suit failed; Sara Lisa and Linnaeus were married in 1739. The entry under
Browallia grandiflora in
Curtis’s Botanical Magazine of 1831 reports: == Publications ==