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Today's Topics:

1. Re: to italicize or not to italicize... (David Ehrlich)
2. Re: to italicize or not to italicize...(final attempt)
(David Ehrlich)
3. Re: to italicize or not to italicize... (Jim McKenney)
4. Re: to italicize or not to italicize... (Jim McKenney)

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Message: 1
Date: Mon, 15 Sep 2008 09:21:41 -0700 (PDT)
From: David Ehrlich <idavide@sbcglobal.net>
Subject: Re: [pbs] to italicize or not to italicize...
To: Pacific Bulb Society <pbs@lists.ibiblio.org>
Message-ID: <184743.54404.qm@web81006.mail.mud.yahoo.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=windows-1252

Wow!? I look at the E-mail I sent, and all the italices are gone.? So,
also is the multiplcation symbol for the hybrid.? I'll try resendin it
using undescores for the italicization -- maybe that'll get through.

----- Original Message ----
From: David Ehrlich <idavide@sbcglobal.net>
To: Pacific Bulb Society <pbs@lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Monday, September 15, 2008 8:58:51 AM
Subject: Re: [pbs] to italicize or not to italicize...

My bible on Plant Systematics gives the ICBN recommendations, which are
that both the generic and specific epithets should be italicized.? The
authority is not italicized.? If you are referring to a variety or
subspecies, the ?var.? or ?subsp.? is not italicized, but the following
epithet is, e.g.,
????????? Lyonia ligustrina (L.) DC. var. filiosiflora (Michx.) Furlow
?
Higher taxa are always capitalized; they are generally italicized by
Europeans, but not by Americans.
?
Cultivar names should have a capital initial and either be included in
single quotes or preceded by ?cv.?? They are never italicized.
?
Hybrid names are preceded by x, and are italicized.

David Ehrlich
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------------------------------

Message: 2
Date: Mon, 15 Sep 2008 09:34:59 -0700 (PDT)
From: David Ehrlich <idavide@sbcglobal.net>
Subject: Re: [pbs] to italicize or not to italicize...(final attempt)
To: Pacific Bulb Society <pbs@lists.ibiblio.org>
Message-ID: <139188.91586.qm@web81001.mail.mud.yahoo.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1

I'm sure that somewhere along the way, my response has been converted to
plain text.? the Italicized wods in my letter were?Lyonia ligustrina and
filiosiflora.? Also?the x for hybrids is not the letter ex, but a
multiplication sign; it?should not have serifs, and it should be centered
with the text, not?on the line like an alphabetic letter.

------------------------------

Message: 3
Date: Mon, 15 Sep 2008 12:39:10 -0400
From: "Jim McKenney" <jimmckenney@jimmckenney.com>
Subject: Re: [pbs] to italicize or not to italicize...
To: "'Pacific Bulb Society'" <pbs@lists.ibiblio.org>
Message-ID: <001001c91751$957ee140$2f01a8c0@Library>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

Hi, Jennifer

The two responses we've have so far go along way to answering your
questions; I'll just add a bit more here because the recommendations in
the
earlier responses are those formulated for use in technical or more formal
publications. I edit the local rock garden chapter?s bulletin, and I
wrestle
with questions of this sort all the time. Our membership includes several
professional taxonomists who are concerned that anything they publish in
our
bulletin should appear seemly in the event that one of their professional
colleagues should see it. At the other end of the spectrum, our membership
includes many gardeners who probably throw away plant labels as soon as
they
get home from the source, and who don?t know the names of most of what
they
grow. I?m known to be a bit of a martinet when it comes to proper labels.
And I?m perceived as speaking only ?gardener?s Latin?. At a recent meeting
I
used a vernacular name, and several heads turned at once; and one of them
actually said ?I?ve never heard you use a vernacular name before!?.

Keep in mind that this is not a matter of right and wrong - it's a matter
of
style. Just as there is no universally accepted authority for the grammar
of
American English, so there is no universally accepted authority for these
matters.

And just as the majority of people spend more time and money to be stylish
in their dress, hair and politics (and how ?bout them Tina Fey glasses!)
than they do to acquire refined grammatical sensibilities, the majority of
editors don't want to seem to be a Doofus (take that, spell check!) and
bend
to prevailing practice in these matters.

Languages change, and our language is changing a lot right now.

Here's the way I would treat the part of your inquiry which is not
directly
addressed in the responses so far. You wrote

"He refers to Bearded Iris and Oncocyclus Iris. Are these considered
scientific names or common names? I did not italicize hybrid tulips,
hyacinths, and crocus - should I have? Meanwhile, I did italicize Lilium,
Muscari, and Tigridia. Right or wrong?"

I would not capitalize or italicize either word in "Bearded Iris" or
"Oncocyclus Iris". To my mind they are pseudoscientific common names.
However, if those terms were in reference to another publication cited in
the paper at hand where they were capitalized, then follow the format used
in the other publication.

The words "tulips" and "hyacinths" are not Latin: they are the plural
forms
of words now commonly accepted as English. The word crocus poses a
different
challenge: there is a perfectly good English word "crocus" which looks
just
like the genus name of the plant in question, Crocus (italicized). Current
practice in many circles is to regard all genus names as potential English
names, with the difference that in their English avatar they do not have a
capitalized initial letter. But watch out here: I would say that our job
as
editors is to understand what the writer means and to convey that meaning.
Does the writer mean "the genus Crocus" or does the writer mean "crocus"
in
the vernacular sense? Any editorial changes to the writer's usage should
reflect the writer's intentions, not blind adherence to some preconceived
"rule".

If you're doing the writing yourself and are uncomfortable with the
inclusion of what seems to be the same word used to convey two separate
meanings, you can emphasize the difference by using the plural of the
English form: crocuses won't be confused with Crocus (italicized and with
a
capital initial letter).

If you agree with that and understand it, then that should answer your
question about "Lilium, Muscari, and Tigridia". In other words, depending
on
what meaning is to be conveyed, those words can be printed in lower case
letters without italics (and made plural just to avoid any ambiguity) or
can
be printed in italics with a capitalized initial letter (when they are
shorthand for the full expression "the genus Xus").

Jim McKenney

jimmckenney@jimmckenney.com

Montgomery County, Maryland, USA, 39.03871? North, 77.09829? West, USDA
zone
7

My Virtual Maryland Garden http://www.jimmckenney.com/

BLOG! http://mcwort.blogspot.com/

Webmaster Potomac Valley Chapter, NARGS

Editor PVC Bulletin http://www.pvcnargs.org/

Webmaster Potomac Lily Society http://www.potomaclilysociety.org/

------------------------------

Message: 4
Date: Mon, 15 Sep 2008 13:03:59 -0400
From: "Jim McKenney" <jimmckenney@jimmckenney.com>
Subject: Re: [pbs] to italicize or not to italicize...
To: "'Pacific Bulb Society'" <pbs@lists.ibiblio.org>
Message-ID: <001801c91755$0e67ea40$2f01a8c0@Library>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

Well, David, welcome to email world. I have long regretted the lack of
italics capability on this forum - it makes discussions such as this one a
lot more complicated.

But I'm glad you had this experience: I wanted to start a discussion of
the
role of italics in print media.

I've always assumed that the practice of italicizing scientific names is a
hold over from the old more general practice of italicizing text in a
foreign language. When I was a kid, it was not unusual to see foreign
words
italicized. The practice has all but died out in my local newspaper, The
Washington Post. I've complained about this to them, and I've complained
about the practice of using words and phrases from who-knows-what language
without explanation of the meaning or the pronunciation.

The relevance, if any, of all of this to the present thread has to do with
the treatment of taxa above the rank of genus and species. I've seen a
call
for the italicization of all such taxa. For most of us, that would mean
that
in addition to italicizing the genus and species, we would italicize the
family name, too (and also italicize the names of orders and so on in the
unlikely event that we would use them).

What interests me about this is that the print media in general seem to be
taking one direction while garden writing seems to be taking another. In
some samples of my own writing I italicized all taxa: the result was a
very
busy page, like one with too many exclamation points. I can understand why
newspapers are shying away from the extensive use of italics (and isn't it
ironic that this is happening when italics are so easily done in word
processors). But I wish they would give some thought to providing
definitions and pronunciation guides to these words. Then again, I wish
more
gardening publications would do the same (and not with those phony "as if
they were English words" pronunciations - I don't need their help in
pronouncing my own language).

Jim McKenney

jimmckenney@jimmckenney.com

Montgomery County, Maryland, USA, 39.03871? North, 77.09829? West, USDA
zone
7

My Virtual Maryland Garden http://www.jimmckenney.com/

BLOG! http://mcwort.blogspot.com/

Webmaster Potomac Valley Chapter, NARGS

Editor PVC Bulletin http://www.pvcnargs.org/

Webmaster Potomac Lily Society http://www.potomaclilysociety.org/

------------------------------

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End of pbs Digest, Vol 68, Issue 18
***********************************