Calochortus Question

David Nicholson d.avensis@virgin.net
Sat, 21 Jun 2008 13:51:25 PDT
There is a Primula marginata form named  'Caerulea'  !!

David Nicholson
in Devon, UK  Zone 9b




>SNIP> What is the correct spelling for Calochortus caeruleus/coeruleus?
> Wikipedia claims that coer… is an incorrect spelling and that it
> should be caer….  The Gerritsen & Parsons book spells it coer…, and
> makes no mention of an alternate (or incorrect) spelling.  The
> Jepson Manual also uses coer…., but IPNI uses caer….  Calflora
> spells it coer…, but directs you to Calphotos where it is spelled
> caer….


  the correct spelling is no doubt   COERULEUS !!!!
>
> I guess this is an example of historic confusion: the ligatured
> diphthongs oe and ae look pretty much alike.  When the diphthong oe
> appears in Latin, it is frequently derived from oi in a Greek word,
> e.g. coelestis from the Greek root koilos meaning concave or
> hollow.  Caeruleus is a Latin word meaning (dark) blue.  Coeruleus
> makes no sense – it is an evident misspelling of caeruleus.  So,
> the question is: who made the first misspelling?  If it was
> Kellogg, should it have been corrected, or should the misspelling
> be perpetuated?  There should be some rules of Nomenclature to
> guide us here.
> David Ehrlich

the confusion is coming from  far/ old times  when the diphtongs
COE and CAE   had the same  translation  in Italian  ( vulgaris
latin ) and other latin languages  :  CE  we read it  "  cae  " ,

  returning back to latin somebody wrote  CAE   and someone else
wrote  COE  ,


the Church also makes confusion with the word CAELUM  ( sky )  in
REGINA  CAELI  we often find written  REGINA COELI , not only in
Italy but you may find the mistake in Paris and
  in England too  ( google search:   Regina Coeli Parish,
http://www.reginacoeli.org/    ) the jail in rome is written Regina
Coeli....   Casa circondariale di Roma Regina Coeli,

the mistake for CAERULEUS  ( better to translate with grey/blu ) may
also be found  in Medicine:  Locus Caerulus in the brain is often
written Coeruleus,

more,  in some fishes names we find Coeruleus ( google search   Image
for Acanthurus coeruleus....)

I fear we cannot change this even with a great battle  ( useful?)<SNIP> 


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