The Names Of Plants.pdf

question does not meet all the requirements of the Code. Names which have longstanding
use and wide acceptability and are used in standard works of literature
can be proposed for conservation and, when accepted, need not be discarded in
favour of new and more correct names.
Some eastern European publications use Daucaceae for the Apiaceae, split the
Asteraceae into Carduaceae and Chicoriaceae and adopt various views as to the generic
basis of family names (e.g. Oenotheraceae for Onagraceae by insisting that Linnaeus’
genus Oenothera has prior claim over Miller’s genus Onagra).
Generic names
The rules of botanical nomenclature
The name of a genus is a noun, or word treated as such, and begins with a capital
letter. It is singular, may be taken from any source whatever, and may even be
composed in an arbitrary manner. The etymology of generic names is, therefore,
not always complete and, even though the derivation of some may be discovered,
they lack meaning. By way of examples:
Portulaca, from the Latin porto (I carry) and lac (milk) translates as ‘milkcarrier’.
Pittosporum, from the Greek, pitta (tar) and sporoj (a seed) translates as ‘tarseed’.
Hebe was the goddess of youth and, amongst other things, the daughter of
Jupiter. It cannot be translated further.
Petunia is taken from the Brazilian name for tobacco.
Tecoma is taken from a Mexican name.
Linnaea is one of the names which commemorate Linnaeus.
Sibara is an anagram of Arabis.
Aa is the name given by Reichenbach to an orchid genus which he separated
from Altensteinia. It has no meaning and, as others have observed, must
always appear first in an alphabetic listing.
The generic names of some Old World plants were taken from Greek mythology
by the ancients, or are identical to the names of characters in Greek mythology. The
reason for this is not always clear (e.g. Althaea, Cecropia, Circaea, Melia, Phoenix,
Tagetes, Thalia, Endymion, Hebe, Paeonia and Paris). However, some do have reasonable
floristic associations (e.g. Atropa (the third Fate, who held the scissors to cut the
thread of life), Chloris (the goddess of flowers), Iris (messenger to gods of the
rainbow), Melissa (apiarist who used the plant to feed the bees). The metamorphoses,
that are so common in the mythology, provided direct associations for
several names (e.g. Acanthos (became an Acanthus), Adonis (became an Anemone),
Ajacis (became a Narcissus), Daphne (became a laurel), Hyacinthus (became, probably,
a Delphinium) and Narcissus (became a daffodil). The gods, however, deviously
changed form to further their machinations.
If all specific names were constructed in the arbitrary manner used by M.
Adanson (1727–1806), there would have been no enquiries of the author and this
book would not have been written. In fact, the etymology of plant names is a rich
store of historical interest and conceals many facets of humanity ranging from the
sarcasm of some authors to the humour of others. This is made possible by the wide
scope available to authors for formulating names and because, whatever language
is the source, names are treated as being in Latin. Imaginative association has produced
some names which are very descriptive provided that the reader can spot the
association. In the algae, the chrysophyte which twirls like a ballerina has been
named Pavlova gyrans and, in the fungi, a saprophyte on leaves of Eucalyptus which
has a wide-mouthed spore-producing structure has been named Satchmopsis
brasiliensis (for Louis Armstrong (1901–1971), Satchmo, diminutive of satchelmouth).
In zoology, a snake has been given the trivial epithet ‘montypythonoides’
(for the TV programme Monty Python’s Flying Circus) and, in palaeontology, the
members of the Beatles pop group have been commemorated in the names of
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