115 
? 
BOTANICAL NAMES. 
Personal and place names may give us adjectives in -ana or -ensis. Examples 
are Bosistoana from the name of Joseph Bosisto, one of the pioneers in Eucalyptus 
01 ex rac ion, Belegat crisis from Mount Delegate in New South Wales, where the 
species so named was found growing. But when the Latinized nominative so 
reqmres or suggests, the specific name takes the form of the genitive singular. 
Urns from Risdon a place m Tasmania, we assume Risdonus or Risdonum (nom.) 
and Risdom (gen.) and then make Eucalyptus Risdoni, which means the eucalypt 
o iscon. From Gunn, the name of a botanist, we assume Gunnius (nom.) and 
Gunmi (gen.), and then make Eucalyptus Gunnii, which means Gunn’s eucalypt 
or the eucalypt named m honour of R, C. Gunn. From the personal name Mueller 
we have both Muellenana and Muelleri. In the best English tradition specific 
names derived from names of persons or of places (proper nouns) are always 
commenced with capital letters. Other specific names commence with small letters. 
The student must learn and remember the botanical names of the species; 
and while he is learning the mere words it will be an advantage also to learn their 
meanings or personal references. We cannot claim that botanists have in all cases 
chosen the best possible specific names for the eucalypts; but the student will find 
that he has usually something to gain and nothing to lose by going back in each 
case to the point of view of the naming botanist. The name expressed something 
that appeared at the time important and interesting; and what impressed the 
botanist when he named the species, it will usually be worth while for us to note 
when we study that species for ourselves. Descriptive names, especially, have an 
important educational value. Personal names are less easily traced and will not 
always so well repay research. 
The only difficulty about scientific names pertains to pronunciation. Some 
botanists still adhere to the English sounds of the letters; but the reformed or 
(more correctly) restored classical pronunciation seems now destined to be 
universally adopted. Thus a will be sounded long as in father or short as in ant; 
e will be sounded long as ei in freight or short as in set; i long as in machine or 
short as in pin; o as in note; u as oo; c as k; g always hard; v as w. The schools 
have very generally adopted these sounds in teaching Latin; and any student, 
even if not following a Latin course, can easily put himself right. 
