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Sender: - JBS-L - Josselyn Botanical Society discussion list of the University of Maine <[log in to unmask]>
From: Arthur Haines <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Mon, 22 Jan 2001 07:51:43 -0500
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Reply-To: - JBS-L - Josselyn Botanical Society discussion list of the University of Maine <[log in to unmask]>
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Rick,

The early trend was to capitalize specific epithets that were named after
people.  However, that practice has been dropped and all specific epithets
now begin with a lower case letter.  Names of people can often be
identified (even when you don't know the name of scientist) by the single i
ending (if the person's name ends in a vowel) or the double ii ending (when
the person's name ends in a consonent) of the epithet.  Of course,
adjective forms of peoples names end differently (e.g., Gernanium
robertianum, Potentialla robbinsiana).  There are many exceptions to this
rule, including gender, names that are already latin, etc. and I won't bore
you with this.


Arthur Haines
Plant Biologist/Field Taxonomist
Woodlot Alternatives, Inc.

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