Vol. i No. 6 



TORREYA 



June, 1901 

 "WHEN IN ROME DO AS THE ROMANS DO" 



By P. A. Rydberg 



Professor E. L. Greene has lately published a very interesting 

 article in the Catholic University Bulletin under the title, " Some 

 Literary Aspects of American Botany" in which he criticizes 

 especially the forms of titles used by botanical authors in America. 

 I intend here to point out some misuses in naming plants. If, in 

 attempting to do this, I should myself make some blunders, I 

 trust they may be pardoned and corrected by some more com- 

 petent critic* 



The old proverb, "When in Rome do as the Romans do," 

 may well be applied to the use of Latin in botanical descriptions 

 and terms. In other words, when we use the Latin language in 

 science we should always try to use it as a Roman would have 

 done. Latin descriptions such as two which were published in 

 one of our leading botanical journals a few years ago f bring dis- 

 credit to the author as well as to the journal that prints them. 



This time I shall, however, dwell only upon specific names 

 given in the honor of some person. Two methods have been 

 used by biologists, viz., the Latin genitive form of the proper 

 noun and an adjective formed from the same by appending -amis, 

 -ana, -anum. Many botanists have agreed to use the former 

 when the person in whose^ honor the plant is to be named has 

 discovered it, described it or done any other work in connection 



* Even the best may make mistakes sometimes, as was illustrated in the article 

 cited above, where Professor Greene misquoted a title he criticized. On page 153 

 appears "Contributions to the Comparative Histology of Pulvini and the Resulting 

 Pholeolitic Movements," and on page 157, " Pholiotic Movements" instead of 

 "* * * Photeolic Movements" as it reads in the original. 



fBot. Gaz. 26 : 268, 269. 1898. 



[The exact date of publication of each issue of Torreya is given in the succeed- 

 ing number. Vol. I, No. 5, comprising pages 49-60, was issued May 22, 1901.] 



