Of course they are the same name, and I understnad the transliteration issue. But botanical names do not have to be "correct", they only have to respect the rules of botanical nomenclature. Here is another layer to the problem: Latin, classical Latin, has no letter "w". Botanists who are rigid Latinists would eschew the "w" - and since the Latin "v" is traditionally given the sound of "w", that only adds to the temptaion to avoid the "w" because the "v" would represent the "w" sound. But I think botanists sometimes go back and change the original spellings to make them conform to the spelling used by the eponym. A case in point: all my life I've written Crocus tommasinianus. But the name is now "officially" changed to respect Signor Tomasini's spelling, i.e. with one "m". Because such activity (i.e. spelling changes) is generally well below my radar screen, I brought the issue up hoping a practising botanist familiar with the Scoliopus and Tulipa questions might respond with the details. Any takers? Jim McKenney jimmckenney@starower.net vho is wery veary of vord wariations At 11:00 AM 1/31/2004 -0500, you wrote: >Hi all, > >They are really the same name. The "V" sound is transliterated from Slavic >languages into German as "w" so if a German botanist gave the original >name, it would be spelled with a W, whereas if an Anglophone botanist named >the plant, it might be spelled with V. I think probably either spelling is >perfectly acceptable, but to be sure you would have to go back to the first >publication of the original description of that plant species. > >Since that is not worth most of our bothering with, we should keep in mind >the duality of spelling the V sound in botanical names. > >Lots of fun! > >Jim Shields >Anglo-Germano-phone with a little Latin thrown in, but no Greek > > >At 09:45 AM 1/31/2004 -0500, you wrote: > >>Bryan mentioned "Note the RHS Plant Finder has bigelowii, whereas my other >>books have bigelovii." >> >>In a similar vein, I have seen Tulipa maximowiczii spelled Tulipa >>maximoviczii in at least two recent publications. Which is it? ( >> >>Jim McKenney > >************************************************* >Jim Shields USDA Zone 5 Shields Gardens, Ltd. >P.O. Box 92 WWW: http://www.shieldsgardens.com/ >Westfield, Indiana 46074, USA >Tel. ++1-317-867-3344 or toll-free 1-866-449-3344 in USA > >_______________________________________________ >pbs mailing list >pbs@lists.ibiblio.org >http://www.pacificbulbsociety.org/list.php >