THE CLASSIFICATION AND NAMING OF PLANTS 331 
porum; or the noun may be in apposition to the generic name 
and so in the same case, as Cytisus scoparius. Names that had 
formerly been used for genera but since reduced to species are 
usually capitalized, whether originally proper nouns or not, as 
Aristolochia Serpentaria and Anacyclus Pyrethrum. In cases where 
two nouns make up the specific epithet, the first of these is in 
the nominative case, the second in the genitive, the two names 
being connected by a hyphen, as Capsella bursa-pastoris. The 
botanical name of the species yielding the drug, Aspidosperma, 
(Aspidosperma Quebracho-blanco) will serve as an example of the 
specific portion of the names being composed of a noun and an 
adjective. Specific epithets taken from names of persons begin 
with a capital.’ 
Variety EpirHeT.—Names of varieties are applied in two 
different ways. Either the name of the species is given and 
followed by the prefix var. before the varietal epithet, as Cheno- 
podium ambrosivides var. anthelminticum; or the varietal epithet 
may be appended to the name of the species, as Chenopodium 
ambrostotdes anthelminticum. 
It frequently happens that a botanist is careless in naming a 
species and, without ascertaining whether the same name has 
been assigned to another species, applies it to his, thus causing 
duplication. For example, there have been two distinct species 
of plants named Eupatorium laevigatum, one a form of Joe Pye 
Weed, the other a species of the American tropics. In this case 
the name Eupatorium laevigatum does not tell us which species 
the writer or speaker refers to; it might be the tropical plant 
called Eupatorium laevigatum by Lamarck or the Joe Pye Weed 
named Eupatorium laevigatum by Torrey at a later date. Accord- 
ingly, it is necessary to add to the name of the species the author’s 
name. In this connection it is customary to abbreviate the 
name of the author thus, Lam. for Lamarck, Torr. for Torrey, 
L. for Linné, Mill. for Miller, Ait. for Aiton, Loisel. for Loiseleur- 
Deslongchamps, or Tourn. for Tournefort. 
Whenever a plant is transferred from one genus to another, it 
must retain its original specific epithet, unless the genus to which 
it is transferred already possesses a species with that epithet, in 
-1 There is a tendency amongst American botanists to use the small letter in 
beginning the spelling of all specific names irrespective of their source. 
