Randy, This is indeed a very complex subject and I may be able to help just a little. First, there may be modified rules governing the creation of names for natural hybrids. There is definitely a different set of rules for artificial hybrids and cultivar names, which group it sounds like your plant belongs to. When you write "Gowenii" it should always have an "x" in front of it to denote the fact that it is a hybrid, even though it sounds like a "species name". Nowadays the practice of giving names to hybrids that sound like biological species names is frowned upon. I believe it is proper to capitalize such hybrid names (as you have done), even if they are not derived from proper nouns. Regular specific epithets like C. macowanii are not capitalized. Family history has nothing to do with "i" vs. "ii". If an honoree's name, that of a male individual, ends in a consonant it is typically modified with "ii" (brownii, thompsonii, etc.) while if it ends in "r" or a vowel it will end with "i" (bakeri, fiskei). These are not iron-clad rules, however, and there are variations besides. One construction that always puzzled me was a case where a name ended in a single "i" but seemed to need two, e.g., Solanum xanti. It turns out that the honoree's name was not "Xant" but Xantius, which is Latin to begin with, and so the rules are different and not what you might expect. Botanical nomenclature is complex enough that most botanists will pass their attempts at it by one of the small handful of acknowledged experts in the field. The International Code of Botanical Nomenclature is the final word in these matters but it is a formidable text for any scholar. Dylan Hannon Los Angeles On 19 March 2012 08:20, Randy.R <steyrhahn@yahoo.com> wrote: > I have found crinum Goweni spelled with both single (i) and double (ii) . > Per http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/… > > The web article says: Common endings for masculine and neuter nouns are > -ii or -i in the singular and -orum in the plural, and for feminine nouns > -ae in the singular and -arum in the plural. The noun may be part of a > person's name, ... or -i endings show that in each case Hodgson was > a (different) man. > > Further. The following appears to be the authority of plant naming > http://www.ishs.org/sci/icrabotc.htm > >