masoniorum?

J.E. Shields jshields@indy.net
Thu, 26 Aug 2010 06:47:44 PDT
Russell,

It's just a matter of orthography.  In botanical Latin, most proper names 
end in -ia (f) or -ius (m), one exception being names ending in -r.  E.g., 
Hymenocallis lehmilleri named after Dave Lehmiller.   So "masoniorum" is 
masculine genitive plural.  The foregoing to the contrary not withstanding, 
you will probably see it as "Nerine masonorum" at least as often as you see 
Nerine masoniorum.  A few years back, we had a lengthy discussion of this 
very point somewhere, maybe in the IBS list.

BTW, John Bryan lists it as "Crocosmia masoniorum" in his "Bulbs" (revised 
edition); not that John always got everything right......   Batten and 
Bokelmann don't even list Crocosmia mason(i)orum in their 1966 book on 
flowers of the Eastern Cape.

Jim Shields

At 08:58 AM 8/26/2010 -0400, you wrote:
>But then Crocosmia masonorum (masoniorum) comes to mind.  A band of 
>freemasons, maybe?
>
>Russell
>
>At 08:21 AM 8/26/2010, you wrote:
>>Isn't it Nerine masonorum?  Which is curious anyway, because presumably 
>>the name commemorates Francis Masson.
>>
>>Russell
>
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>Jim Shields             USDA Zone 5             Shields Gardens, Ltd.
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