Floras in Latin

[Erast Parmasto]

On Tue, 2 Mar 1999 08:58:52 -0700,
JOSEPH E. LAFERRIERE  <josephl at AZTEC.ASU.EDU> wrote:

>The
>rumor was that the Flora of Iran, published in the
>1980's, was printed entirely in Latin. The story
>I heard was that publishing it in the language of the
>"Great Satan" would have been politically haram [=ganz
>verboten]. Hence the choice was between Latin and
>Farsi.

   In 1968, I published "Conspectus systematis Corticiacearum" (261 pp.) in
Latin, with a short introductory part in Russian. It was impossible to
publish anything in English in the USSR then, I was told I must compile it
in Russian. I told that descriptions of all new taxa, lists of species
accepted &c. must be in Latin anyway, and there was great shortage of paper
for printing. They believed me. - My choice was between Latin and
Russian. This publication was widely used by taxonomists, but it seems
that nobody has read its introductory part (incl. _Principia communia
classificationis Corticiacearum_).
   Similar obviously political reason was why famous Chech mycologist
Albert Pilat published in his "Flora C^SR. Rada B. Svazek 1.
Gasteromycetes" (Praha, 1958; in Czech) a summary not in English or German,
but in Latin (125 pages!).
   Erast Parmasto

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   "The main thing, is to keep the main thing, the main thing."
                                                 Scott Krippayne
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Erast Parmasto
Institute of Zoology & Botany, Estonian Agricultural University
181 Riia St., EE 51014 Tartu, Estonia
Phone: +372 7 383 027; Fax: +372 7 383 013
<e.parmasto at zbi.ee>