Orchid Names 



Latinity knows " in short, knows that the man 

 who does not see it at a glance cannot properly be 

 called a reasonable being. I expect similar treat- 

 ment from the critics, who, of course, will not read 

 this apology. For I have mutilated the inflections 

 that is, one class of them. 



Doubtless many readers have observed that the 

 personal names attached to species of plants are 

 inflected upon two different systems ; as, for 

 example, Dendrobium Devonianum, and Dendrobium 

 Gibsonii, and some probably have been unable to 

 detect or to learn the principle of this distinction. 

 It is an arbitrary rule, indeed, but useful. The 

 name of a discoverer is put in the genitive case ; 

 the name of an individual, bestowed for compliment's 

 sake, or because the plant flowered under his pro- 

 tection, is transformed to an adjective. The 

 examples just cited are characteristic. Mr. Gibson 

 travelled at the expense of the Duke of Devonshire, 

 and a Dendrobium he discovered is called Gibsonii ; 

 another which he discovered was named in honour 

 of the Duke ; not " Devonii," therefore, but " De- 

 vonianum " or " Devoniense." 



These titles are correct enough by the rules of 

 Latin grammar. But we do not talk Latin, and 

 our instincts revolt against the double " i" In 

 the case of a monosyllable, like Odont. Rossii, many 



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