François Paul JAUVY (1760-1822), botanist, specialist in the flowers of the Alpes-Maritimes. Autograph letter signed and addressed to the botanist Louis Gérard de Cotignac (1733-1819), himself a specialist in Provençal plants and the Southern Alps. In 1761, he published "Flora gallo-provincialis", the first work on the flora of Provence. Grasse, 21 January 1814. 3 pp. large in-4. Fine scientific letter, notably on his discovery of the Narcissus lotus, endorsed by Candolle. Jauvy scoured the Estérel massif and Laval for his botanical hunts and describes a number of his research projects: Astragalus, inula odora, inula crithmoides, anthyllis, etc. He recounts his exchanges with Jaume Saint-Hilaire, praises Emeric de Castellane "that indefatigable botanist" who was unable to find Tournefort's fern in the Pyrenees, known as "Filicula Montana folio vario", and mentions the cryptogamy work of Samuel Elisée Bridel-Brideri (1761-1828), the mycologist Christiaan Hendrik Persoon (1761-1836), the botanist Dominique Villars (1745-1814) and others. Jauvy congratulated his correspondent on the rich work on the flora of Provence: it surpassed that of the Turin botanist Carlo Allioni (1728-1804) on the flora of Piedmont, which he strongly criticised. He refers to the work on the olive tree by the botanist and agronomist Jean-Louis-Auguste Loiseleur-Deslongchamps (1774-1849) [whose Flores were illustrated by Redouté and Bessa] and denounces the latter's attempts at plagiarism, particularly through his translations of Latin works "adorned with the peacock feathers of appropriation". Loiseleur had asked Jauvy for a great deal of information and samples of plants "new to him" in order to appropriate them. He recounts a quarrel between himself, Loiseleur, Wilden and Gouan over Narcissus gouani, and lists the erroneous names given to this plant: "Finally, M. de Candolle, rejecting Linné's Nacissus odorus, has given it the name Narcissus Lotus, which he honours me for having found in Grasse [...]". François Paul Jauvy and Louis Gérard de Cotignac both built up exceptional herbariums containing several thousand plants from Provence, the Alpes-Maritimes and the Southern Alps. The latter is kept at the Muséum départemental du Var in Toulon.