Dear Jim A large part of your problem with latinized names stems form the fact that you try to pronounce as if it was english That is not of great help:(<<At this point it occurs to me that maybe I don't know how to pronounce Sloane. I assume it is pronounced as a one syllable word.>>). If the names are prounced as it should be as it now are latin names and no longer englisn names most of tyour problems dissappear. So dont pronounce jonesii as if it is still an english word It should be prounounced when latinized as jonEsii ending with two i like in pit Of course no one knows how the romans prounced it but the roman languages as they now exist are a far better approximation than the english language, that has forgotten to adapt the written words to the spoken words. Ben J.M.Zonneveld Institute of Biology,Leiden University, Clusius lab Wassenaarse weg 64, 2333 AL Leiden, The Netherlands Zonneveld@rulbim.Leidenuniv.NL Fax: +31-71-5274999. min temp -10C (15F)