Dialogue about the catalog (and pronouncing names)

[Susan B. Farmer]

>
>At 07:07 2002-06-21, Freek Vrugtman wrote:
>>Around that time Philip Muntz of Flora of California fame visited the
>>herbarium; over coffee I asked him how he pronounced botanical names; his
>>reply: "It all depends where I am."
>
>More than a decade ago, Armen Takhtajan of the Komarov Botanical Institute
>visited Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden and gave a seminar. Afterwards, he
>asked that questioners pronounce scientific names in the European fashion,
>because, even though he was quite fluent in English, he could not recognize
>the names pronounced in the English fashion. Several of us in the audience
>ended up "translating" the names for the rest.
>

Which is the English Fashion and which is the European?  A hundred years
ago when I was an undergrad, family names ended in -AY-SEA-AY; now (at
least my major professor) they seem to end in -AY-SEA-EE.  I still hear
both -- and I say both.

Inquiring Grad Students Want to Know!  :-)

Susan
-----
Susan Farmer
sfarmer at goldsword.com
Botany Department, University of Tennessee
http://www.goldsword.com/sfarmer/Trillium