62 



with it, and the latter when the author wishes to honor some 

 friend without the latter being otherwise connected with the plant. 

 The acceptance of this distinction is far from universal, however. 



If a friend happens to discover an undescribed species and one 

 wishes to name it after him, it is important to know how to give 

 his name in a proper Latin form. The Berlin botanists have 

 adopted the following rules : If the name ends in a consonant 

 other than r, add -ii to the name, but if the name ends in a vowel or 

 r, add -i.* We therefore say Carex Bicknellii, but C. Torreyi and 

 C. Fraseri. The only exception to these rules admitted by the 

 Berlin botanists is in case the name ends in a, when it follows the 

 first declension with -ae in the genitive, as for instance Physalis 

 Lagascac, named after the Spanish botanist Lagasca. 



The adding of -ii or -i to the proper name of, any barbarian 

 language has not come down to us from the classic Latin ; for 

 the old Romans latinized names in many different ways, and if 

 they could not give it a good Latin form, they adopted it as it 

 was and made it indeclinable. The custom mentioned comes to 

 us from the middle ages, when Latin was the language of the 

 learned and every learned man must have a Latin name. Most 

 of them formed this by adding -ins or -us to the name, so that 

 Des Cartes became Cartesius, Rudbeck, Rudbeckius, and Ray, 

 Raius ; others, however, translated their names, as for instance 

 Bock, who called himself Tragus. 



The adding of -ius and -us in the nominative and -ii and -i in 

 the genitive is good, as a rule, whenever the name is not already 

 in good Latin form. It would never occur to a Roman to write 

 Lagascai as the genitive of Lagasca, and the Berlin botanists have 

 seen it in that light, but would it not be as ludicrous in the eyes 

 of a Roman to see the genitive of Magnus written Magnusii? 

 And still the Berlinese cite this as the proper form. Names such 

 as Retzius, Hieronymus, Wislizenus, etc., have a good Latin 

 nominative form {Hieronymus was used in old Latin), and no end- 

 ing needs to be added. It would be worse than grammar school 

 Latin to write in the genitive Retziusii, Hieronymusii and Wis- 

 lizenusii. American botanists have, in general, refrained from 

 such forms. The only name that in America has been treated 



* If the friend were a lady, -iae and -ae should then be substituted, respectively. 



