The funny thing is that only English speakers every time wonder how to pronounce a name . The explanation is simple. There are about 35 different sounds in every language. There are also about the same number ,35, of ways to write these sounds. With one exception unfortunately .The English has about 800 different ways to write these same 35 sounds. For me, if I see a dutch word for the first time I know in most cases how to pronounce it. This is nearly impossible with an English word even if you are a linguist. By the way those that insist on keeping close to the English name of a person seem to forget that there are people speaking other languages after whom plants are named How do you handle these? Ben Ben J.M.Zonneveld Nationaal Herbarium Nederland POBox 9514 2300 RA Leiden, The Netherlands telf 071 5274738 E-mail: Zonneveld@NHN.Leidenuniv.nl