The Names of Plants

by David Gledhill

• ISBN13: 9780521685535
• ISBN10: 0521685532
• Edition: 4th
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2008-03-24
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

The Names of Plants is an invaluable reference for botanists and horticulturalists. The first section gives an historical account of the significant changes in the ways that plants have been known and named. It documents the problems associated with an ever-increasing number of common names of plants, and the resolution of these problems through the introduction of International Codes for both botanical and horticultural nomenclature. It also outlines the rules to be followed when plant breeders name a new species or cultivar. The second section comprises a glossary of generic and specific plant names, and components of these, from which the reader may interpret the existing names of plants and construct new names. With explanations of the International Codes for both Botanical Nomenclature (2000) and Nomenclature for Cultivated Plants (1995), this new edition contains a greatly expanded glossary, which includes the Greek, Latin, or other source of each plant name.

Table of Contents

Preface

The nature of the problem

The size of the problem

Towards a solution to the problem

The rules of botanical nomenclature - Family names

Generic names

Species names

Epithets commemorating people

Geographical epithets

Categories below the rank of species

Hybrids

Synonymy and illegitimacy

The international code of nomenclature for cultivated plants

Graft chimaeras

The glossary

Bibliography.