296 SPECIFIC NAMES. 



tamnus, Artemisia DracunculuSy Laurus Cinnamomum^ 

 Selinum Carvifolia, Carica Papai/a.{\\9) In either case 

 the specific name stands as a substantive, retaining its own 

 gender and termination, and must begin with a capital 

 letter ; which last circumstance should be observed if a 

 species be called after any botanist who has more par- 

 ticularly illustrated it, as Cortusa MatthioU, and C 

 Gmeh?ii, Durajita Flumierii, and Mutisii. The latter 

 genus suggests an improvement in such kind of names. 

 The genitive case is rightly used for "the person who 

 founded the genus, D. Plumerii ; D. Mutisiana might 

 serve to commemorate the finder of a species, while Z). 

 Ellisia implies the plant which bears it to have been 

 once called Ellisia. 



There is another sort of specific names in the geni- 

 itivc case, which are to me absolutely intolerable, though 

 contrived by Linnasus in his latter days. These are of 

 a comparative kind, as Lobelia Columnece^ meaning Co- 

 lumnees formis. We may allow a few such, already es- 

 tablished, to remain, but no judicious author will imitate 

 them. 4 



Botanists occasionally adapt a specific name to some 

 historical fact belonging to the plant or to the person 

 whose name it bears, as Linncea borealis from the great 

 botanist of the north ; Murrtea exotica after one of his 

 favourite pupils, a foreigner ; Browallia demisa and ela- 

 ta, from a botanist of humble origin and character, who 



(119) [The factitious word Theobroma^ food for the gods ; ap- 

 plied to the Cocoa or Chocolate Tree, is much better merited, 

 than the classical Ambrosiay which belongs to a common weed.] 



