Two Allium of the season - RESEND

Jim McKenney jimmckenney@jimmckenney.com
Sun, 03 Jun 2007 10:42:39 PDT
John Grimshaw wrote: "Of course it must agree in gender! Allium is a neuter
noun so any adjectives 
in Latin must agree with it and have a neuter -um ending, not a feminine -a,

Unless it was published before 1957 the use of 'Album' is illegitimate 
anyway, and a name in a vernacular language should be substituted."


Maybe I should have been a lawyer. 

Suppose I have a good friend whose nickname is "Album". And suppose this
name is not derived from the Latin, but rather in his non-Indo-European
language this combination of transliterated letters means "prodigious
quaffer of beer". 

Surely I may name a cultivar for him and call it 'Album'. 

Or may I? 

On consideration, I would hope that I could name a cultivar 'Alba' to
commemorate an Italian friend of that name. 

And does the international code require that authors explain the etymology
of specific epithets or generic names? I don't recall seeing that in the
code; is it there?


Jim McKenney
jimmckenney@jimmckenney.com
Montgomery County, Maryland, USA, USDA zone 7, where it's finally raining. 
My Virtual Maryland Garden http://www.jimmckenney.com/
 
Webmaster Potomac Valley Chapter, NARGS 
Editor PVC Bulletin http://www.pvcnargs.org/ 
 
Webmaster Potomac Lily Society http://www.potomaclilysociety.org/
 
 
 
 
 
 


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