Shakespeare famously asserted that "a rose by any other name would smell as sweet," and that's as true for common garden roses as it is for Megacorax, a genus of evening primroses. Though it may not sound like it, Megacorax was actually christened in honor of famed American botanist Peter Raven, its name a play on the Latin words for "great raven." In this lush and lively book, celebrated botanist Sandra Knapp explores the people whose names have...

Traces the search for order in the natural world, a search that for hundreds of years occupied some of the most brilliant minds in Europe, reaching its apex during the Renaissance. From Athens in the third century BC, through Constantinople, Venice, the medical school at Salerno to the universities of Pisa and Padua, the journey involves a world full of intrigue and intensely competitive egos, from Europe to the culture of Islam, the first expeditions...

This reference book has 2 sections. The first section gives a historical account of the significant changes in the ways by which plants have been known and named. It documents the problems associated with an 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. The second section comprises a glossary of generic and specific...