Re: Campanula spelling

Janet,

There are clear rules set forth in the International Rules for Botanical
Nomenclature for forming compounds.  In this case, the word "primula" is
Latin first declension feminine. To form the genitive you add an "e".
Normally, if the author who gave the species the name misspelled it in its
originally published description, the misspelling is preserved, as long as
the error involves only the root of the word.  If it simply involves the
Latin word ending (in this case the ending of the first part of a compound)
the misspelling changes the meaning and it should be corrected.  I agree
that Hortus III, the RHS Dictionary, and several other references have not
made the correction, but Clifford H. Crook, in Campanulas, the first major
monograph devoted to the genus (published in 1951), has it spelled
"primulaefolia", which is technically correct.

I probably should not have inserted this into the discussion, since I have
not taken the time and effort (it takes some of both, since I don't have the
references in my library and I would have to go to the Huntington or the
Arboretum or UCLA or all three) to look up the original publication and
subsequent descriptions.  But rules are rules.
John MacGregor
jonivy@earthlink.net


----------
>From: "Michael D. Markovitch" <mmarkovi@worldnet.att.net>
>To: jonivy@earthlink.net
>Subject: Campanula spelling
>Date: Sun, Jul 9, 2000, 9:02 AM
>

> John, Hortus III has your Campanula primulaefolia spelled primulifolia.  Is
> there a prior authority to Hortus III?  When I wrote the name in my
> notebook I misspelled it according to everyone as I'd left out the u. I
> want to know the correct spelling as I may even remember the spelling on
> this one!
>
>
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