Species Hermas quercifolia

The origin of the genus name Hermas is not known. Some sources state that Hermas, a freed slave who lived in Rome in the first or second century, was the seer of an apocalypse entitled The Shepherd, a work treated with great authority in ancient times and ranked with the Holy Bible. According to the Muratorian Canon and also stated in the Liberian Catalogue, he was the brother of Bishop Pius I, (c 145), who occupied the chair of the church of the city of Rome. However, there is no evidence that the genus name referred to him when Linnaeus created it in 1771.