20 The New York State Col lege of Forestry 



indicates the type of fruit prevailing, the manner in which the 

 tlowers are borne, or some other prominent feature of the plant. 

 For example, the large tropical family, the Legummosae, is so 

 named because the fruit is a legume, while the flowers are always 

 umbelliferous in the Umhelliferae. 



The generic name of a plant is one word and substantive. 

 Commonly it is the old classical name used by the Greeks and 

 Romans as Fagus for Beech, Acer for Maple, Corylus for the 

 Hazel, etc. Or it may be derived from some peculiarity of the 

 plant as Liriodendron which comes from the Greek kii/H<r,, meaning 

 lily, and Sivdpov^ tree, referring to the lily -like flowers of this 

 species. Gymnocladns means literally "naked branch" and 

 refers to the stout, leafless branches in the winter condition. 

 Other genera are dedicated to distinguished botanists or in honor 

 of some person or of the discoverer of the plant. Roibinia is 

 named after John Robin, the first to cultivate this species in 

 Europe; Magnolia is from the surname Magnol, in honor of Peter 

 Magnol, a botanist of the 17th century. Generic names take the 

 ending of the Latin nominative case. 



The specific name is also a single word, appended to that of 

 the genus. It is generally an adjective and agrees Avith the 

 generic name in case, gender, etc. In general the generic names 

 of trees are of feminine gender and require specific names with 

 feminine ending, but exceptions to this rule occur, especially 

 where the generic name was the ancient name of the plant. For 

 example, Acer was the Latin name of the maple, is of neuter 

 gender, and is followed by specific names with the endings of this 

 gender. 



Specific names* may denote (a) the locality (country, prov- 

 ince, state, city, river, etc.), or habitat from which the plant 

 originally came as Ostrya virginmna — from Virginia, Salix hahy- 

 lonica — from Babylonia, Picea sitchensis — from Sitka, Alaska ; 

 (b) some peculiar feature of the plant as Salix purpurea — • 

 referring to the purple branches, Madura pomifera — referring 

 to the large, pome-like fruits of the Osage Orange; (c) the name 

 of the discoverer, or in honor of some botanist or person as Quer- 

 cus Mickauxii, for the surname Michaux, and referring to F. 

 Michaux, one of the earlier dendrologists ; (d) an ancient name, 

 as Pimiis Strohus, strobus being Latin and referring to a cone 

 or something twisted. A substantive name when used specifi- 

 cally may not accord with the generic name in gender. 



• See footnote, page 14. 



