And I don´t know what to think!?
Nor do I understand if this name is supposed to be considered a feminine or a masculine one?
The species name is adjectival:
pomar- (stem of Pomare) + -
eus, -
ea, -
eum; the -
ea ending being used because the adjective must agree in gender with the feminine genus-group names
Muscicapa,
Monarcha, or
Pomarea.
Bonaparte presumably simply turned this into a substantive to form a generic name, even though he did not explain nor cite the species name as such. (It is also possible that he regarded
Muscicapa pomarea Less. & Garn. as a junior synonym of
M. nigra Sparrm. at this point, as this is what Lesson had made of it, after having described it as a distinct species: if so, he may have decided to 'revive' the invalid species name as a generic name.) Bonaparte did not state or indicate a gender for his generic name; the name is to be treated as feminine, either because it ends in a feminine Latin suffix or, if you don't want to make this assumption, because feminine is the default gender for names that end in -
a.
All of these feminine endings give no indication whatsoever about the gender of the dedicatee, however.
(F.i.,
Achilles,
-is is the Latin name of Achilles;
achilleus, -
ea, -
eum is a classical Latin adjective meaning 'of Achilles'; and
achillea (to be understood as
achillea planta, 'the plant of Achilles') is also a classical Latin noun, formed by substantivation of the feminine form of this adjective, which denotes the yarrow, a plant that Achilles was said to use to heal wounds.
Achillea is feminine exclusively because the understood (but omitted)
planta is; Achilles, on the other hand, quite unquestionably, was a man.)
A commemoration of Pōmare II? Or his wife? See Wiki
here. Or (but unlikely) Pōmare III? Alt. the Dynasty itself? Also note that Wikipedia claims "Pomare II" to have died in 182
0. And that "Pomare III" was born the same year? Apparently it was No. II who (together with his capable wife?) stood for the "elevation" of those "Savage" Islands (into Christianity).
The dedication that you quoted above is to a chief in person, not to a wife that would not be chief herself. I also doubt that Lesson would have used the masculine noun 'chef' to refer to a woman.
I would also note that in French "chef des îles de la Société" is a bit ambiguous, as it can indeed mean "the chief of the Society Islands", but also "a chief from the Society Islands".
The person that Lesson called "Pomaré" elsewhere -- [
here] -- and with whom he had contacts when on Tahiti, was Pomaré Nehoraii, son of Vuaïnini, husband of young Princess Aïmata (daughter of the late King Pomaré II and Queen Térémoémoé, and future Queen Aimata Pōmare IV Vahine-o-Punuateraʻitua). Lesson described him as an exceptionally corpulent young man, who was barely over 16 years old (in 1823). (While the princess was a slight, rather shy, and amiable young girl, who was then 12 or 13.)
