Taxa Field Guide

For Salvador Soliva (1750–1793), Spanish botanist and medical practitioner. He obtained his PhD from the University of Madrid in 1771, became physician to the Spanish Court and the royal family of Spain, and director of the Madrid Botanical Garden. In 1785, he and Joaquin Rodriguez (1839–1905) began studying the medicinal properties of some plants. He co-authored, with Rodriguez, the three-volume work Observaciones de las Eficaces Virtudes Nuevamente Descubiertas ó Comprobadas en Varias Plantas (Observations of Newly Discovered Virtues Effective or Proven in Several Plants) (1787–1890).

Gk. steibein = to tread; stoibe = a stuffing (Jackson); a classical name for a plant used as packing material and for stuffing cushions.

For William Vernon (1666–1711), English botanist and bryologist, fellow of St Peter’s College, Cambridge, graduating with a BA (1688) and MA (1692); a Fellow of the Royal Society, who collected plants in Maryland, Virginia, North America, in 1696 with the English Reverend Hugh Jones (1671–1702) (a replacement for John Banister, who was accidently shot dead while collecting plants in 1692) and Dr David Krieg (1669–1710), German surgeon and botanist, a correspondent of Petiver. All together they collected more than 650 plants from Maryland.

Gk. name xanthion, from xanthes = yellow. The plant does not have a yellow flower, but is used for dyeing hair yellow.

For Johann Gottfried Zinn (1727–1759), a German anatomist, ophthalmologist and botanist. He obtained his doctorate in 1749 from the University of Göttingen, being one of Albrecht von Haller’s (1798–1777) best students. In 1753, he became an extraordinary professor at the University of Göttingen, director of the botanical gardens at Göttingen, and also wrote A Description of the Flora around Göttingen. Two years later, in 1755, he became professor of the medical faculty at the University of Göttingen, during which time he wrote Descriptio Anatomica Oculi Humani, which contained the first accurate description of the human eyeball, including details of the vessels and nerves of the eye cavity. Yet his interest in botany remained and, in 1757, just before his early death, he described the genus Epipactis, belonging to the Orchidaceae family. He was a member of the Berlin Academy.

From the Latin orientalis = ‘eastern’

Gk. Arabis (q.v.); -opsis = resembling (Arabis).

Gk. brachys = short; karpos = fruit, hence ‘short fruits’; possibly referring to the short-stalked fruits. Gk. brachys = short; chiton = a tunic; referring to the overlapping scales or the bristles surrounding the seed in fruit.

Gk. khamira = the name of a monster in Greek mythology. Probably referring to the plant’s prostrate habit, Gk. Chamai = on the ground, low, dwarf.

La. crambe, Gk. krambe = a kind of cabbage.

The Greek name for pepperwort.

From the Greek Aiolos = 'the god of wind' and anthos = 'flower'; referring to its habitat – the plant is essentially a mountain- and cliff-dwelling species.

From the Greek name ballote used by Dioscorides, perhaps from ballein, to throw, reject, on account of the offensive odour.

La. cedrus (Gk. kedros) = cedar; Gk. -ella = diminutive. The scent of the leaves is supposed to resemble the cedar.