canadensis
Max Withers (Tue, 25 Mar 2008 16:03:01 PDT)

Thanks to Jacob for resolving this about as far as can be done unless
someone has a copy of the second ed. of Species plantarum handy.
(Tropicos lists the first appearance of A. canadensis in that ed., while
MOBOT has only digitized the first and third editions, which are so
poorly indexed as to be nearly useless). At least Guerney is in between
Capetown and Kew (or Uppsala)!

I am often amazed that plant biologists don't have to take a year or two
of latin, although it would often be useless for deciphering the
intentions of modern (as in post-Renaissance) botanists.

Best,
Max

Message: 10
Date: Tue, 25 Mar 2008 11:53:50 -1000
From: "Jacob Knecht" <jacobknecht@gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [pbs] canadensis
To: "Pacific Bulb Society" <pbs@lists.ibiblio.org>
Message-ID:
<2f42069d0803251453r3de80f7dlb86da33dfdb9681@mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1

HI Linda, Max, and Alberto,

On page 13 of The Color Encyclopedia of Cape Bulbs, there is a
paragraph retelling how Nerine sarniensis received it's specific
epithet to commemorate Sarnia, the Latin name for the isle of Guernsey
where the bulbs naturalised "after a Dutch ship returning from Japan
in about 1655 with bulbs in her cargo" apparently lost some and washed
ashore. It goes on to say that, "The names of several other Cape
bulbs described in the 17th century make wildly inaccurate allusions
to their purported places of origin, among them Albuca canadensis ( =
A. flaccida), Brunsvigia orientalis, and the Malgas (Madagascar) lily,
Cybistetes longifolia."

From what other accounts I've read it seems that bulbs were collected

at different parts of the world on a ships' single voyage and that
often the collection would get jumbled up by the time it arrived back
in Europe. One can only imagine the confusion with which Linnaeus and
other taxonomists we beset with when naming some of the first Cape
bulbs.

Aloha,

Jacob Knecht
Honolulu, Hawai`i