taxonomists have a sense of humor, or at least a certain amount of 

 ingenuity in devising taxonomic names. Muilla is a western plant 

 that looks like an onion {Allium) although it differs from onions 

 in that it is odorless, among other characters. Mm/Z/a is Allium 

 spelled backwards. Tellima (fringe cups) is a western saxifrage 

 whose name is an anagram of that of another genus in the same 

 family: Mitella (mitre wort). Perhaps the ultimate is the curious 

 generic name for a rare California aquatic plant named Legenere 

 limosa. Its generic name is an anagram derived from the letters 

 of the name E. L. Greene, another early professor of botany 

 at the University of California, Berkeley, and a noted, indeed 

 controversial, figure in the botanical history of the state. 



There are also some generic and specific names which are 

 truly misnomers, because of historical accident. Goatnut or 

 Jojoba, a desert shrub of the American Southwest, otherwise 

 known as Simmondsia chinensis, is not found in China. Appar- 

 ently the specimen upon which the name is based was involved 

 in a mixup of labels with a group of plants that had indeed 

 been collected in China. One wonders how many Chinese plants 

 are called "californica" as a consequence of this accident! 

 Nevertheless, inappropriate as it is, the specific name of this 

 shrub must remain. Thimble Berry, Rubus parviflorus, has a 

 specific name which means "small flowered", yet it has one of 

 the largest flowers of any member of the genus Rubus (which 

 includes blackberries, blackcaps, etc.). How this misnomer 

 came to be applied to Thimble Berry is uncertain, but it is 

 possible that the specimen upon which the name was based was 

 atypical in some respect. Lastly, those of you who have 

 travelled up the northern California coast in Mendocino County 

 may have visited the Mendocino White Plains, where there are 

 several dwarfed conifers, including Pygmy Cypress, Cupressus 

 pygmaea. Although this tree is truly a small one when it grows 

 on the peculiar soils in these areas, when it occurs off these 

 soils it grows to a good-sized tree and is hardly a pygmy. 



The Taxonomic Hierarchy 



Every species belongs to a genus. There is only one Pinus 

 lambertiana, although there are many other species of pines, 



8 



