On 12 Dec 2008, at 8:39, Jane McGary wrote: > Dylan wrote, > > >Some languages are not "latinizable" and a scientific epithet based on > >a local name in such a language may appear in its original form as a > >specific or generic epipthet, e.g. Dypsis bejofo, Caryota no, > >Kaempferia galanga or Alpinia zerumbet. > > Epithets such as this are considered (and often are in fact, being > the native-language names of the plants) nouns rather than > adjectives. We also see Latin and Greek nouns occasionally used as > epithets, and this is usually why a species name does not exhibit > gender agreement with the genus name. "A substantive in apposition" is, if my failing memory hasn't failed too much, the technical term. I'm sure this grammatical gambit is also used in English as in "the country France is highly civilized" but I'm somewhat skeptical that that example is on all fours with the botanical Latin example Zephyranthes atamasco. Perhaps "the perfume Eternity is a real stinker" is closer. -- Rodger Whitlock Victoria, British Columbia, Canada Maritime Zone 8, a cool Mediterranean climate on beautiful Vancouver Island http://maps.google.ca/maps/…