Evening star., 1940-11-02

Nellie Brown. OF course, there mlgnt:
be two Mary Browns, and then 1t
would be helpful to call one Mary
Anne Brown to further describe or
distinguish her.
Applying this to plants, let's take
first the well-known dogwood.
Cornus is the genus name and we
write it with a capital letter. 1t Is
Towering dogwood so we say
Cornus florida. But If it is pink
Towering dogwood, then we say
Cornus florida rubrum. Notice that
only Cornus is capitalized.
Since these genus names are
Latin, we will not make pluralS of
them. Cornus (dogwoodD, Acer
(maples) and ETC., are written so.
If we wish to write them as plurals
by adding IS" we must not begin
them with capitals. Most American
writer's do not use the plurals of
plant names So we shall follow
their example.
Now let us consider some Of the
anu SSAAO4 oAAy oSS0
plant names. The botanical name
of foxglove is Digitalis, from the
Latin "digitale," finger. p. pur-
purea is purple colored foxglove.
Gypsophilia paniculata fore pleno
(babysbreath) is gypsophilia with
full or double flowers in panicles.
The viburnums give us many ex-
amples. V. nanum means dwarf
viburnum, V. dentatum, toothed
viburnum, which describes the
leaves, and V. pubescens, the downy
viburnum.
Color may often be told by such
texms as album or albiforus, white
fowered: argenteus, silvery; aureus,
golden; coccineus, scarlet; purpurea
and purpurascens, purple, and dis
color of two or of different colors.
You all know Hemerocallis fulva,
the tawny daylily, and H. flava, the
yellow daylily.
Giganteum means large, while
grandif1orus means large-leaved.
Repens means creeping. patens,
spreading; rupestris, rock-loving;
arboreous, treelike; elatus and ex-
celus, tall, and divaricatus, spread
ing.
Many plants derive their names
from the Latin or Greek words which
In some manner describe them as
Hemerocanis from hemero, day, and
kallos, beauty, or Dianthus (pink)
which came from dios, divine, and
anthos, flower. Others are named
for botanists or leaders of many ma
tionalities. Hosta (funkia) is named
for N T. Host, a German botanist,
and H Funk, also a German bot
anist. Boltonia was named for a
British professor of botany, J. B.
Bolton Aubrietia for N. Aubriet, a
French botanical draughtsman;
Monard for N. Monardez, a physi-
clan from Seville, and Lobelia from
M. L'Obel, a physician to James I
of England.
Some plants are named for the
places from which they originated
as Nepeta which is named for Nepet,
a town in Tuscany, and Iberis from
Iberia, the ancient name for Spain.
Helenium was named for the beau
tiful Helen of Troy; Daphne for the
nymph, and Achillea for Achilles,
who first used it in medicine.
So we might 60 on ad infinitum,
but now that you see how much
there is of real interest in these
sometimes difficult names you will
perhaps wish to carry on. You will
soon find it fun to know your flowers
by their correct names. When you
can say Saliva azurea grandiflora"
gnbly and with the exact knowledge
that it means that lovely blue
sage" it will take on new meaning
for you!
Of course, this does not mean that
you will want to forget the common
names, the nicknames and pet
names. Leadwort is a much easier,
friendlier name to use, even though
less accurate than Ceratostigma
plumbaginoides, and who would
want to call blue spirea Caryopteris
incana?