Hi Jane--as my knowledge of Spanish is nearly non-existent, I'll rush in here and give my amateur hypothesis: I wonder if the 'knight's star' mentioned may refer to the 'star' in the throat of the flower, and not to an astronomic body? A wild guess on my part, but the name could simply be a case of 'poetic license'? (A horse might admire the 'star', but being toxic, that is all....??) -Rick Buell -------------------------------------------- On Sat, 5/13/17, Jane McGary <janemcgary@earthlink.net> wrote: Subject: Re: [pbs] Hippeastrum and astronomy To: "Pacific Bulb Society" <pbs@mailman1.ibiblio.org> Date: Saturday, May 13, 2017, 8:53 PM On 5/13/2017 2:07 PM, penstemon wrote: > > Isn’t hippeastrum “star of the horse”? But apparently not much to do > with astronomy. > https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippeastrum/ No, it's said to be from hippeus 'horseman', not hippos 'horse'. On the other hand, there is a word hippeios 'pertaining to horses'. I still want the name of that star -- or was William Herbert thinking of a constellation? My author admits nobody knows what Herbert was thinking of. Jane _______________________________________________ pbs mailing list pbs@mailman1.ibiblio.org http://pacificbulbsociety.org/list.php http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/ _______________________________________________ pbs mailing list pbs@mailman1.ibiblio.org http://pacificbulbsociety.org/list.php http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/