> ...Dr. Lehmiller's guide in Madagascar was named > Mr. Razafindratsiraea [SIC]... Uh... I think his name is Alfred Razafindratsira, pronounced alphabetically with the accent on the DRAT, and the final -ea in the plant's specific is Latinization. Alfred runs a nursery in Antananarivo, which is pronounced an-ta-na-na-REEV in formal speech but usually called Tana. In the Malagasy language almost all final vowels are silent, a final -SY usually represents the SH sound in English, and many place names are shortened in colloquial speech. (Note the adjective referring to Madagascar is "Malagasy", pronounced ma-la-gash, and not "Madagascan", despite the fact that many sources use the wrong adjective.) We can thank a Welshman for deciding how to write spoken Malagasy in the Latin alphabet, which explains why it's so easy to sound out. (That was sarcasm.) I haven't studied the language enough to figure out whether those silent terminal vowels carry any linguistic significance. When the French colonized the island they wrote the words as they would be spelled in French, which is why all the place names are different between old and newer maps. > You couldn't force me at gun-point to go some of the places Dave > Lehmiller has happily gone hunting plants. (Well, maybe to Namibia....) Trust me, any plant lover would be infatuated with Madagascar and would want to botanize for months at the least. Leo Martin Phoenix Arizona USA