Re: Funny Forskaohlei
- To: m*@ucdavis.edu
- Subject: Re: Funny Forskaohlei
- From: J* A* <j*@mech.eng.usyd.edu.au>
- Date: Thu, 5 Nov 1998 19:31:56 +1100 (EST)
At 18:12 5/11/98 +1100, I wrote:
>At 01:17 5/11/98 -0500, Rich wrote:
>>
>>1. One or two s's
>>2. a or ao or a
>>3. H or no H
>>4. ei or ii
>
>As for "-ei" versus "-ii", my knowledge of the conventions of botanical
>latin endings is miniscule, but "-ei" looks better to me :-)
A look at a few dozen names of plants where the species name is derived from
a person suggests the following:
"-ii" is normal, after a consonant
"-i" is used after "e" or other vowels (whether sounded or not), and in a
few other cases ("muelleri", "fraseri", "ferdanandi") which all seem to end
in what might be mistaken for a latin suffix ("-er", "-and"). But what
about "powerii" then?
So in the case of "forsskaol?i", it should be "-ii", unless, of course, the
man spelled his name "Forsskaole" (which is quite possible).
The choice of "-ianus" versus "-anus" seems to work on the same principle.
But how do they decide between "-ii" and "ianus" (genitive versus adjective)
-- why is it "Austomyrtus hillii" but "Grevillea hilliana", and "Synoum
muelleri" but "Archidendron muellerianum"? Oops, there's an "-i-" in the
last one. So much for that theory.
OK, anyone, what are the *official* rules?
John.
