Nomenclature rules on gender as established by the international Botanical
congresses follows..
I am still trying to interpret these rules, but these congresses are the
ones who set the rules.
Division II
Rules and recommendations
Chapter VII: Orthography and gender of names
60C.1. When personal names are given Latin terminations in order to form
specific and infraspecific epithets formation of those epithets is as
follows (but see Rec. 60C.2):
1. If the personal name ends with a vowel or -er, substantival
epithets are formed by adding the genitive inflection appropriate to the sex and
number of the person(s) honoured (e.g., scopoli-i for Scopoli (m),
fedtschenko-i for Fedtschenko (m), fedtschenko-ae for Fedtschenko (f), glaziou-i
for Glaziou (m), lace-ae for Lace (f), gray-i for Gray (m), hooker-orum for
the Hookers (m)), except when the name ends with -a, in which case adding -e
(singular) or -rum (plural) is appropriate (e.g. triana-e for Triana (m),
pojarkova-e for Pojarkova (f), orlovskaja-e for Orlovskaja (f)).
2. If the personal name ends with a consonant (except -er),
substantival epithets are formed by adding -i- (stem augmentation) plus the genitive
inflection appropriate to the sex and number of the person(s) honoured
(e.g. lecard-ii for Lecard (m), wilson-iae for Wilson (f), verlot-iorum for
the Verlot brothers, braun-iarum for the Braun sisters, mason-iorum for
Mason, father and daughter).
3. If the personal name ends with a vowel, adjectival epithets are
formed by adding -an- plus the nominative singular inflection appropriate to
the gender of the generic name (e.g. Cyperus heyne-anus for Heyne, Vanda
lindley-ana for Lindley, Aspidium bertero-anum for Bertero), except when the
personal name ends with -a in which case -n- plus the appropriate
inflection is added (e.g. balansa-nus (m), balansa-na (f), and balansa-num (n) for
Balansa).
4. If the personal name ends with a consonant, adjectival epithets are
formed by adding -i- (stem augmentation) plus -an- (stem of adjectival
suffix) plus the nominative singular inflection appropriate to the gender of
the generic name (e.g. Rosa webb-iana for Webb, Desmodium griffith-ianum
for Griffith, Verbena hassler-iana for Hassler).
Note 1. The hyphens in the above examples are used only to set off the
total appropriate termination
I hope this helps straighten out the confusion on nomenclature rules
affrecting personal names!
Cherry G