maack'ii: named for Richard Otto Karlovic Maack (sometimes spelled Maak) (1825-1886), most widely known for his

exploration of the Russian Far East and Siberia. He was born in the town of Arensburg in what is now Estonia. His father came from a family of Baltic Germans and his mother was English. He studied natural sciences at the University of St. Petersburg, and in 1852 became a professor of natural sciences at the Irkutsk classical gymnasium and later Director of the school. During the 1850s he undertook a number of expeditions in Siberia including those to the Amur River valley and the Ussuri River. During the first of his expeditions which was to the Yakutsk region of northern Russia in 1854-1855, he surveyed the

natural resources of the district and covered a total of more than 8,000 kilometers on boats, horses, deer and on foot. Shortly after returning from this journey, he was off again, this time to the Amur River area. He wrote some of the first scientific descriptions of the natural history of remote Siberia and collected many biological specimens, many of which were original type specimens of previously unknown species. Following three years living in St. Petersburg, he wrote a book about his Amur expedition, and worked on the collections he brought back which included minerals, plants, household items of local peoples, and other things. In 1859, Richard Maack went even further east, to the Ussuri River, but when he fell sick the mission had to be cancelled. At some point he also participated in the Russian Geographical Society's first expedition to describe the orography, geology and population of the Vilyuy and Chona River basins. During the following years of his life, Maack managed to write many fundamental works on his travels and statistics. He also worked as a teacher in Irkutsk for many more years, becoming the Chief Inspector of Schools in Eastern Siberia. Maack is most famous for collecting previously unknown species and sending specimens back for scientific descriptions and naming. A number of those he found on his Amur River expedition bear his name including the Amur maackia (Maackia amurensis), the Amur honeysuckle (Lonicera maackii), and the Amur chokecherry (Prunus maackii), also the Amur softshell turtle (Pelodiscus maackii).

macgregor'ii: named for Ronald Leighton MacGregor (1919-2012), Curator Emeritus of the Ronald L. McGregor Herbarium at the University of Kansas. He was born in Green, Kansas, and graduated from high school in Oregon, Missouri, in 1937. He received his B.S. degree in botany from the University of Kansas in 1941 and started graduate studies at KU that same year. He served in the U.S. Army from 1942 to 1946, stationed most of that time in the Pacific Theater, then resumed his graduate studies at KU in 1946, completing his M.S. in 1948 and Ph.D. in 1954. He was promoted to Assistant Professor at KU in 1954, when he also took over directorship of the herbarium, then with about 70,000 specimens. He was promoted to Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Botany in 1957 and to Professor in 1961. He administered the construction of a new botany greenhouse and a new herbarium building on KU’s West Campus in the early 1960s. Around that same time, he initiated systematic efforts to document the plants of the Great Plains with financial support from the Bridwell Foundation. The Foundation helped underwrite field expeditions to every county in the Great Plains, garden plot studies of range grasses, and specimen preparation into the 1980s. MacGregor continued to serve as Chair of Botany until 1969, when he became the first Chair of the Department of Biological Sciences. He continued in that capacity until 1973. In 1971, he helped convene a meeting of Great Plains botanists, which group formally organized as the Great Plains Flora Association in 1973, with MacGregor serving as the coordinator. The Association published the Atlas of the Flora of the Great Plains in 1977 and the Flora of the Great Plains in 1986. From 1973–1983, MacGregor served as Director of the Kansas Biological Survey. In 1984, with funding from the Bridwell Foundation, he oversaw construction of an annex to the herbarium building; the entire building was named the Joseph S. Bridwell Botany Research Laboratory in 1985. He continued to serve as Professor and Curator until 1989. At his retirement in 1989, the herbarium had grown to nearly 300,000 specimens. In 1990, the collection formally was named the Ronald L. McGregor Herbarium and was “dedicated to the study of the Great Plains flora.” MacGregor authored nearly 200 papers and books during his career and collected nearly 42,000 specimen numbers in the U.S. and Mexico. His duplicate specimens are widely distributed among North American herbaria and frequently cited in the literature. He served as a regional reviewer for the Flora of North America project, putting his prodigious knowledge of Great Plains plants to good use. He also authored treatments for five genera in the Hydrangeaceae, and was active at various times in more than a dozen professional organizations. He continued to work in the herbarium nearly every day after retirement until April 2009. On rare occasions when he took time off from the herbarium, he enjoyed fishing and working in his garden. He was keenly interested in Kansas history, and he had an encyclopedic memory for dates, places, people, and events. He died in 2012 and was survived by his wife of 70 years, Dorothy M. MacGregor.

Maclea'ya: named for Alexander Macleay (1767-1848), ), Scottish statesman and renowned gentleman naturalist, who

		was Secretary of the Linnean Society (1798-1825) and a Fellow of the Royal Society. Macleay emigrated to Sydney as Colonial Secretary (1826-1848) and became the first speaker of the Legislative Council in 1843. Not much seems to be known about his early life, but he was born in the county of Ross-shire in Scotland. One source says he had a classical education during his upbringing while another posits that he was educated for a commercial career. He relocated to London and became a wine merchant with a business partner named William Sharp, after whom his first son was named. In 1795 he

was elected a fellow of the Linnean Society of London and served as its secretary, and was also appointed chief clerk in the prisoners of war office. When the office was linked with the Transport Board after war broke out, Macleay became head of the correspondence department and by 1806 its secretary. The board was abolished in 1815, and Macleay retired. His chief natural history interest was entomology, principally lepidoptery, and he possessed the finest and most extensive collection then existing of any private individual in England and possibly the world. It is not clear when or how he developed his interest in natural history and insects, or what activities he was able to undertake while carrying on a professional career, but in 1813 he was elected a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and at some point a Fellow of the Royal Society. He left England in 1825 and was appointed Colonial Secretary for New South Wales and nominated to the New South Wales Legislative and Executive Councils. He was granted land at Elizabeth Bay by Governor Ralph Darling, where he constructed Elizabeth Bay House and laid out an extensive 54 acre garden described as a 'botanist's paradise'. He was the first president of the Australian Museum at Sydney, founded in 1836, and helped to develop the Sydney Botanical Gardens. He was married and among his 17 offspring were the entomologist William Sharp Macleay, who expanded his father's collection, and George Macleay, also a zoologist. Macleay died in a carriage accident. The genus Macleaya was published by Robert Brown in 1826.

maclos'keyi: named for George Macloskie (1834-1920), naturalist, educator, author, who was born in Castledawson, County Londonderry, Ireland, 14 September, 1834. He was educated at Queen's College, Belfast, where he received a gold medal in natural science in 1857, and in physical science in 1858. Subsequently he studied theology, and became a Presbyterian clergyman, having charge of the parish of Ballygoney during 1861-'73, and then was Secretary of the Bible and Colportage Society during 1873-'5. He was called to the Chair of Biology at Princeton University by President McCosh in 1874 (Macloskie had studied under him at Belfast), and held a professorship there until 1906. Macloskie and McCosh were strong defenders of evolution, as were their followers, chiefly Charles A. Young, the astronomer, and the physicist Cyrus Fogg Brackett. The trustees enthusiastically approved this choice after turning down the President's first selection of Theodore Gill, a Darwinist from the Smithsonian. Professor Macloskie received the honorary degree of D. Sc. from Queen's University, and that of LL. D. from London University, where in 1871 he received a gold medal for special excellence in a law examination. He was a member of various scientific societies, and a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. His writings include papers on insects and on botany in the "American Naturalist" and "Psyche," and he was the author of Elementary Botany, published in 1883. (Information from the website Virtual American Biographies and from the Encyclopedia of American Biography)

Maclu'ra: named for William Maclure (1763-1840), American geologist. The following is quoted from the website of Clark

Kimberling, Professor of Mathematics at the University of Evansville: "Born to wealth in Ayr, Scotland, on October 27, 1763, William Maclure came to the United States in 1778. Before 1800, he had owned businesses in the new country, traveled extensively in Europe, and joined the American Philosophical Society. In 1803 Maclure served in Paris on a United States Commission representing American citizens with losses resulting from the French Revolution. In Switzerland in 1805, he visited the educational leader Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi, and in 1806 he contacted the Pestalozzian educator Joseph Neef.

Having conducted geological studies in France and Spain, Maclure began intensive studies in the United States in 1808. In 1812, while in France, Maclure became a member of the newly founded Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia (ANSP). In 1815, Maclure contacted Charles-Alexandre Lesueur, artist and natural scientist, and the two traveled extensively together, arriving in Philadelphia in 1816. Joined by Thomas Say and Gerhard Troost, the four made a geological trip in eastern states in 1817. That same year, Maclure became president of the ANSP, a post he held for the next twenty-two years. The next few years, Maclure traveled and resided in France, Italy, Paris, Switzerland, and Spain. In 1824, he visited Robert Owen's cotton mill at New Lanark, Scotland. In July, 1825, he arrived in Philadelphia with Madame Fretageot's nephews. The following November, he met Robert Owen in Philadelphia and decided to join Owen's venture to Harmonie in Indiana, recently purchased by Owen from the Harmonist leader, George Rapp. In January, 1826, the keelboat, Philanthropist, afterwards known as 'The Boatload of Knowledge,' journeyed down the Ohio River to Mount Vernon, Indiana. From there the travelers made their way to New Harmony. Among them were Lesueur, Say, Maclure, and Pestalozzian educators Marie Duclos Fretageot and William S. Phiquepal. Soon to join them in New Harmony were Neef and Troost. After 1826, Maclure spent most of his time in Mexico. However, he continued financial support through Madame Fratageot's management in New Harmony, enabling the scientific work of Thomas Say and Charles-Alexandre Lesueur and later, David Dale Owen and other geologists. Much has been written about the coming together of Maclure and Owen, as well as their separation of ways. According to W. H. G. Armytage, in William Maclure, 1763-1840: A British Interpretation, (Indiana Magazine of History 47, 1951, 1-20), 'Owen was anxious to inaugurate his new moral world as far away from the corrosions of the old one as possible; Maclure wished to try the Pestalozzian methods of instruction on human beings who had known no other. It was but natural that they should get together, especially as Maclure's considerable wealth enabled him to play the part of joint patron. The agreement was that each should provide the sum of one hundred fifty thousand dollars, an agreement which was to be the ostensible cause of their parting.' Twenty geological publications by William Maclure are listed in John M. Nickles, Geologic Literature on North America 1785-1918, Part I. Bibliography, U.S.G.S., Government Printing Office, Washington, 1923. Among these publications are 'Observations on the geology of the West India Islands, from Barbados to Santa Cruz, inclusive' and 'Essay on the formation of rocks, or an inquiry into the probable origin of their present form and structure,' appearing initially in Journal of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia in 1817 and 1818 and then as reprintings from the press in New Harmony in 1832. Most of Maclure's other publications appeared in American Journal of Science and Arts, founded by his colleague Benjamin Silliman, Professor of Chemistry at Yale, in 1818. The next year, Silliman organized the American Geological Society, and Maclure was elected president. The European Journals of William Maclure, edited, with Notes and Introduction by John S. Doskey, was published in 1988 by the American Philosophical Society." And from a History of Geology website by James Aber, Professor of Geology at Emporia State University: "Maclure, who is known as the 'father of American geology,' published the first widely available geologic map of the United States in 1809. He travelled throughout the region east of the Mississippi River, crossing and recrossing the Appalachians many times, making geological observations. His crudely drawn map utilizes the Wernerian system of classifying rocks and shows the distribution of rocks by color. The map accompanied Observations on the geology of the United States (1809), published in the Transactions of the American Philosophical Society. Observations was revised and expanded in 1817, but without adding much new geological information and retaining the Wernerian classification. Maclure adhered to the Wernerian system, which placed severe limits on his understanding of geology. He paid little attention to fossils, which he did not use for stratigraphy. Thus, he did not recognize the relationship between Paleozoic strata of the Appalachian Mountains and Appalachian Plateau regions. He cannot be regarded as a great stratigrapher, such as William Smith of England. Maclure was, in fact, at least a decade or more behind in terms of geological concepts in Europe. Nonetheless, his map and report were the first widely circulated account of geology in the United States. On that basis rests his claim as the 'father of American geology.' He also had quite progressive plans for agricultural education. In spite of much effort, however, he did not succeed in putting his ideas into practice. Nonetheless, he influenced many contemporaries and he played a significant role in development of American geology through his activities." The genus Maclura was published by Thomas Nuttall in 1818 and is called osage orange.

macoun'ii: named for James Melville Macoun (1862-1920), a Canadian botanist and ornithologist born in Thurlow Township, Ontario, the son of Irish botanist John Macoun (1832-1920). JSTOR provides this information: “James M. Macoun was trained at Albert University, Belleville and joined the Geological Survey of Canada in 1883, first as an assistant to his father and later as assistant naturalist, botanist and finally Chief of the Biological Division (1918). Throughout his youth Macoun accompanied his father on expeditions and made considerable contributions to John Macoun's Catalogue of Canadian Plants (1883-1902) as well as his Catalogue of Canadian Birds published between 1900 and 1904. James' first outstanding work conducted for the Geological Survey was to investigate the fur seal fisheries of the Pacific Islands in 1891 and his research that year was so valued that he was asked to continue in 1892-1893. Becoming a specialist in this field he returned in 1896 and 1914 and visited Europe and Washington to attend conferences as an expert. As a botanist he took part in many expeditions in the Canadian wilderness, including to Jasper National Park, Alberta (1917 and 1919) for which he published a flora in 1918, and one to Hudson Bay in 1910 in which his ship was wrecked. Luckily they were rescued and taken to Fort Churchill but had to travel overland in midwinter to Lake Winnipeg and the nearest telegraph line. A keen observer and dedicated collector, Macoun and his father together amassed over 100,000 plant specimens which are now housed in the National Museum. Father and son were also responsible for founding the Royal Victoria Museum of Canada, their 14,000 bird specimens forming its core. Despite his vast collections, James Macoun published little save the botanical report for the Canadian Arctic Expedition (1913-1918) and he was much more interested in studying the distribution of plants than in the discovery of new species. One genus he did take a particular interest in was Carex and he knew its members at every stage of development throughout Canada.” He was also the author of Contributions to Canadian Botany and The Flora of Canada. His father was born in Ireland and came to Canada in 1850, and was a noted botanist, ornithologist and mammalogist. It was his intention to produce a Catalogue of Canadian Mammals but advancing years made that project impossible. John Macoun had many more plant species named for him than his son, and several were named in honor of them together. The species in the Virginia flora, Pseudognaphalium macounii, honors the son, who predeceased his father by six months.

macracan'tha: with large thorns.

macran'tha: large-flowered.

macrocar'pa/macrocar'pon: with large fruits or seed pods.

macrophyl'la/macrophyl'lum: with long or large leaves.

macropo'da: with a large stalk.

macrorhi'za: with large roots or root stocks.

macrosper'ma: large-seeded or large fruited.

macrosty'lum: with long styles.

Macrothelyp'teris: FNA says from "Greek makros, "large," thelys, "female," and pteris, "fern," i.e. a fern species related to or resembling Thelypteris but larger, although where the female part of it comes in I don't know.

macula'ta/macula'tum: spotted.

maculo'sa: same as maculata.

Medeo'la: Stearn says named for the sorceress who helped Jason and the Argonauts to get the golden fleece, because of the plant's reputed medicinal properties. The genus Medeola was published by Carl Linnaeus in 1753 and is called Indian cucumber-root.

mag'na: great, big, from Latin magnus, "great," a root used in English for such words as magnitude, magnificent, magnanimous, magnify, and magnate, and such familiar expressions as magna cum laude and magna carta. The grass species Setaria magna is appropriately called giant bristlegrass or giant foxtail.

magnicampor'um: from Latin magnus, "great," and campus, "a plain, field, open country, level place," thus meaning of great plains or occurring in large meadows. The species Spiranthes magnicamporum is called great plains ladies' tresses.

Magno'lia: named for Pierre Magnol (1638-1715), professor of botany and director of the botanic garden of Montpellier,

France. He was born into a family of apothecaries in the city of Montpellier, where he lived and worked for most of his life. Both his father and his grandfather ran pharmacies, but Pierre wanted to follow the profession that was common in his mother’s family and be a physician. He was devoted to natural history in general and unsurprisingly to botany in particular from an early age. In those days the study of botany and medicine were inseparable, and he enrolled as a student in medicine at the University of Montpellier which was the first French university to establish a botanic garden and was an intellectual and botanical

capital whose medical school attracted students from all over Europe. After receiving a medical degree in 1659, his attention once again turned to botany, this time even more seriously. Supporting himself by the practice of medicine, he devoted much of his time to the study of botany and made several trips through the Languedoc, the Provence, to the Alps and to the Pyrenees. It was 1664 that he as a Protestant first experienced Catholic persecution and discrimination when he was denied a position as 'Demonstrator of plants' in Montpellier, and the same happened again in 1667 when he was the leading candidate for the chair of Professor of medicine. In 1687, after his conversion to Catholicism, Magnol eventually became 'Demonstrator of plants' at the botanic garden of Montpellier. During this difficult period he was in communication with many prominent botanists of the day such as John Ray, William Sherard, James Petiver, Johann Heinrich Lavater and Jan Commelin. In 1693, recommended by court physician  Guy-Crescent Fagon and Joseph Pitton de Tournefort, he was nominated 'doctor to the kings court', and the following year he was finally appointed Professor of medicine at the University of Montpellier. He was also appointed Director of the botanic garden in 1696 for a three-year period. After that, he received the title 'Inspector of the garden' for the rest of his life. Magnol was one of the founding members of the Société Royale des Sciences de Montpellier (1706) and held one of the three chairs in botany. In 1709 he was called to Paris to occupy the seat in the Académie Royale des Sciences de Paris that was left empty when his former student Joseph Pitton de Tournefort died prematurely. Among Magnol's other students were the brothers Antoine and Bernard de Jussieu. Magnol's most important contribution to science was his publication of the concept of plant families, a classification based on combinations of morphological characters, as set out in his Prodromus historiae generalis plantarum, published in 1689. He was the first to promote the concept of plant families as they are understood today, a natural classification of groups of plants that have features in common. He was the author of a number of other major works. Pierre Magnol married Alix Fabre in September t671, with whom he had several children, including Antoine, who became a noted botanist in his own right. In Pierre Magnol's later years he continued to devote himself to botany and the promotion of knowledge, dividing his time between teaching and his private garden where he grew many rare and interesting plants. He passed his hours of recreation in the garden, which he held open to all those who were curious to see the strange plants, or those who wished to converse with him. He had a great understanding and appreciation of the natural world, made significant contributions to botanical history, and persevered in the service of his life's calling. He died in the city he loved and where he was born. The genus Magnolia was published by Carl Linneus in 1753 and is called just magnolia or cucumber-tree.(Much information and some almost quoted passages are from a wonderful article in the journal of the Magnolia Society entitled Pierre Magnol: His Life and Works by Tony Aiello of the Morris Arboretum of the Unlversity of Pennsylvania)

ma'haleb: an Arabic vernacular name for Prunus mahaleb, commonly called the Mahaleb or St. Lucie cherry, a small Eurasian cherry tree, from which is produced the aromatic spice mahleb, mahlep or mahlepi used for centuries in the greater Middle East.

Mahon'ia: named for Bernard McMahon (1775-1816) (listed by some as M'Mahon), botanist, seedsman and horticulturist,

one of the stewards of the plant collections from the Lewis and Clark Expedition. and often described as Thomas Jefferson's gardening mentor. The following is quoted from an Ohio State University webpage on McMahon called Plant Facts: "M'Mahon was born in Ireland but came to America in 1796 because of political instability in that country. He settled in Philadelphia and established a seed and nursery business. Very shortly thereafter he began to collect and export seeds of American plants. By this means many nature plants became established in Europe. In 1804 his catalogue of seeds included 1,000

‘species'. He became acquainted with Thomas Jefferson as well as other distinguished men of his time. It is said that the famous Lewis and Clark expedition was planned in his home. His horticultural interests were very broad and his seed store became a meeting place for botanists and horticulturists. M'Mahon and Landreth distributed the seeds collected in the Lewis and Clark expedition.” In 1806 he wrote the most comprehensive gardening book published in the United States in the first half of the nineteenth century which was entitled, The American Gardener's Calendar and was a standard encyclopedia for many years. In 1807, when it came time to find a draftsman to illustrate the published journals of Lewis and Clark, it was McMahon who recommended the German-born botanist Frederick Pursh, who found himself with the botanical materials when the natural history publication did not materialize, and took them with him to London, where he published 130 plants from the Lewis and Clark Expedition in Flora Americae Septentrionalis, 1813. The genus Mahonia was published by Thomas Nuttall in 1818.
(Photo credit: Thomas Jefferson Encyclopedia)

Maianth'emum: from the Greek maios, "May," and anthemon, "blossom," for May flower, from the blooming season. The genus Maianthemum was published in 1780 by Friedrich Heinrich Wiggers, and is called mayflower or solomon's plume.

maja'lis: flowering in May. Jaeger's Source-book of Biological Names and Terms says that Latin majalis means a "castrated pig or boar," but that New Latin majalis is from maialis, pertaining to the month of May.

ma'jor: larger, greater (see minor).

ma'jus: same as major.

malacoden'dron: from Greek malakos, "soft," and dendron, "tree."

Malax'is: soft or softening, from the Greek malassein, "to soften," from the texture of the leaves. The genus Malaxis was published in 1788 by Daniel Carl Solander and is called adder's-mouth. I can only guess that something about the plant made someone think of an adder's mouth, and you would think that in seventy or so websites there would be at least one that expressed some interest in knowing how the name came about, but no.

Mal'us: a classical name for the apple from Latin malum, "apple." The genus Malus was published by Philip Miller in 1754 and is called apple or crabapple.

Mal'va: a Latin name for mallow taken from the Greek malache or malakos, "to soften," referring to the leaves and an ointment made from the seeds which was supposed to be soothing to the skin. The genus Malva was published by Carl Linnaeus in 1753 and is called mallow.

Malvas'trum: Stearn says: "from Latin malva, "mallow," and -aster or -astrum indicating incomplete resemblance." The genus Malvastrum was published by Asa Gray in 1849 and is called false mallow.

Manfre'da: named for Manfredus de Monte Imperiale, 14th century Italian botanist, writer and physician. The genus Manfreda was published by Richard Anthony Salisbury in 1866 and is called false-aloe.

manhart'ii: named for James Robert Manhart (1950- ), professor emeritus at Texas A&M University. He received a Bachelor of Science degree from Kansas State University in 1972, a Master's degree in biology from the same institution, and a Ph.D. in botany from the University of Georgia in 1984. He taught as a graduate teaching assistant at Kansas State (1977-1979), then in the same capacity at the University of Georgia (1979-1983). From 1983 to 1984 he was a graduate teaching assistant and Curator of the Dunson Native Flora Garden at the Georgia State Botanical Garden and from 1985 to 1986 was a post doc research associate at UG. From 1986 to 1988 he was at the University of Michigan as a National Science Foundation Fellow, and then became an associate professor in the Department of Biology at Texas A&M. He has participated in many symposia and seminars, and has taught classes in taxonomy, ecology and evolution, and economic and systematic botany. He is currently living in North Carolina.
The species Carex manhartii was named for him by Charles Bryson in 1985.

margaret'tae: named for Margaret Haywood Henry Ashe (Mrs. Joseph Orrin Wilcox, Mrs. William Willard Ashe) (1855-1939), the species Crataegus margarettae has commonly been called Margarette's or Margaret's hawthorne. A website of the University of North Carolina in an article about William Willard Ashe (1872-1932) says: "In 1906 he married Margaret Henry Wilcox, for whom he named Crataegus margaretta and Quercus margaretta)." These species epithets have now been changed to margarettae. William Willard Ashe graduated University of North Carolina in 1891. The same article says: "The following year he received his M.S. from Cornell, where he specialized in botany and geology. From 1892 to 1905, he was employed as a forester by the North Carolina Geological Survey, but also worked on special projects with the recently-formed United States Forest Service. Ashe remained a professional forester all of his life, conducting his work on floristics and systematic botany in his spare time or as a minor sideline to his forestry labors. In 1905 Ashe joined the U.S. Forest Service full time and was employed there until his death in 1932. During this time he served as Secretary of the National Forest Reservation Commission (1918-1924), vice-president of the Society of American Foresters (1919), and chairman of the Forest Service Tree Name Committee (1930-1932). His botanical works centered around woody plants, especially the genus Crataegus, although he also published on such herbaceous genera as Asarum and Panicum." Ashe published at least five species of Crataegus. (see also ashei).

margarita'cea: from Latin margarita for "pearl." The common name of Anaphalis margaritacea is pearly everlasting.

margina'lis: of the margins, margined.

margina'ta/margina'tus: margined with another color.

marian'a/marianum:: mottled, with spots, referring to the story that white marks on the leaves resulted from drops of milk shed while Mary nursed the Christ child. According to Stearn's Dictionary of Plant Names, the specific epithet has also been used to refer to a species from Maryland, which was at one time called Terra Mariana. There are literally dozens of species with this epithet.The species Rhexia mariana is called Maryland meadow beauty and Polygala mariana is called Maryland milkwort, so that explains the meaning in these instances. But the derivation for Silybum marianum, milk thistle, is according to the first explanation.

mariland'ica/mariland'icum: of or from Maryland.

mari'na: growing by or in the sea.

marisco'ides: resembling genus Mariscus in the Cyperaceae. Mariscus was an old name used by Pliny the Elder for a kind of rush. Paxton’s Botanical Dictionary gives a Celtic root mar, "marsh."

marit'ima/marit'imum: growing by the sea, maritime, from Latin maritimus, "of the sea."

maroc'cana: of Moracco, Moraccan. The specific epithet maroccana is a feminine form of the Latin word maroccānus (Moroccan). The species Linaria maroccana has been called Moroccan toadflax.

marrubias'trum: I can find no explanation for this epithet, but it seems almost certain that it relates in some way to the genus Marrubium, and the suffix -astrum can refer to the aster flower or to a star. One source says that -aster, or -astrum are suffixes for derivative nouns with pejorative nuance, whatever that means. So it could mean something as simple as an aster-flowered Marrubium, but that's just a guess.

Marru'bium: Gledhill says: "the name in Pliny, either from the Hebrew, marrob, for the bitter-juice or [less likely] for the town of Marrubium in Latium" (an administrative region of central western Italy in which the city of Rome was founded.). Marrubium vulgare of course is the Latin epithet for horehound, and the website of Ricola cough drops says: "marrubium is derived from two Hebrew terms: mar, meaning “bitter”, and rob, meaning “much”. Wikipedia says: "The genus name Marrubium derives from the Latin word marrubii, meaning horehound," and about horehound, "The Oxford English Dictionary derives the word horehound from Old English hoar ("white," "light-colored," as in "hoarfrost") and hune (a word of unknown origin designating a class of herbs or plants)." The genus Marrubium was published by Carl Linnaeus in 1753 and is called horehound.

Marshal'lia: named for Humphry Marshall (1722-1801), the renowned Philadelphia botanist who was called the Father

of American dendrology (picture at left), and his nephew Moses Marshall (1758-1813), an American botanist, surgeon and magistrate in Pennsylvania who made a considerable contribution to his uncle's publication Arbustrum Americanum (1785). Humphry Marshall, a Quaker, was born at Derbydown Homestead in the village of Marshallton, Pennsylvania (within West Bradford Township). He was the cousin of botanists John Bartram and William Bartram. He was a stonemason by trade but took an early interest in botany engendered by Bartram. In 1767 he inherited the family estate and in 1773 created a

botanical garden at Marshallton with both native and exotic plants. This was the second botanical garden in the United States, the first having been established by John Bartram. He cultivated new species and developed a lucrative business selling his plants. not only to clients in America but also in Europe. A website called Pennsylvania Heritage notes that “Plants from his nursery graced the gardens of both King George III of England and King Louis XVI of France. He sold to the scientific botanical gardens in Brussels, Holland and Italy and supplied the commercial forests of Germany as well. Although Bartram was a well-respected naturalist and sold seeds and plants from his garden around the world, Marshall surpassed him in commercial success. Humphry Marshall was also an early advocate for forest conservation and scientific farming methods, which he introduced as an honorary member of the Philadelphia Society for Promoting Agriculture. A friend of Benjamin Franklin, he was elected to the American Philosophical Society. Franklin introduced Marshall’s writings to the Royal Society in London, and his work was esteemed by scientific communities throughout the American colonies and Europe.” In 1785, Marshall published Arbustum Americanum: The American Grove, an Alphabetical Catalogue of Forest Trees and Shrubs, Natives of the American United States (Philadelphia). This work followed the Linnaean system of plant classification, and was the first publication of its kind. He was also interested in astronomy and built a small observatory in one corner of his property. For many years, he was the treasurer for Chester County and trustee of the public loan office. In 1768, he was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society, and he was a member of other scientific societies. Marshall’s nephew, Moses (1758-1813), lived and worked with him for many years, and contributed greatly to both research and business at the nursery. He was born in West Bradford and was educated in English and classics before moving to Wilmington, Delaware, in order to study medicine with physicians like Benjamin Rush and Nicholas Way. The following is quoted from JSTOR: “During the American Revolution he practised as a surgeon, tending to wounded soldiers at the Battle of Brandywine in 1777. He spent the next few years practising medicine part-time, as well as attempting to run an apothecary shop, but he did not accomplish much until he came to live with his uncle in 1784. Becoming involved in the business of collecting, preparing and shipping plant specimens and seeds to Europe, his botanical career began at this time and he collected on expeditions in Kentucky, Tennessee, the Carolinas and Georgia. Moses Marshall entered into correspondence with numerous notable scientists and was considered a candidate to lead a major expedition to the Missouri River, one that would eventually become the Lewis and Clark Expedition. In 1796 Moses Marshall was appointed Justice of the Peace and in 1797 married Alice Pennock. In time he would have six children to tend to and his interest in botany subsided somewhat. On the death of Humphry Mitchell in 1801, Moses inherited a property on the banks of the Brandywine. It seems that he abandoned all of his prior engagements and at some time ran a milling business, having developed a mill on the estate. The impressive garden which his uncle had maintained was neglected by Moses Marshall and by the time of his death was in ruins.” His uncle had facilitated a relationship for him with English botanists such as Joseph Banks and William Aiton and others in Europe, and his 1,600 mile roundtrip journey westward to Pittsburgh and south to the Alatamaha River in Georgia whetted his appetite for a longer more intensive excursion,  but although he was thought of by Thomas Jefferson and others, the expedition ultimately fell to Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, and what he described as “fatigue, expense, and misfortune” plus his uncle’s death in 1801 caused him to mostly withdraw from botanical circles, and he died in Philadelphia. The genus Marshallia was published by Johann Christian Schreber in 1791 and is called barbara's-buttons. The identity of the Barbara to which the name refers is unknown. The name first appears in botanist John Kunkel Small’s 1933 book, Flora of the Southeastern United States.    

Marsile'a: named for the Italian soldier, botanist, geographer, and naturalist named Luigi Ferdinando, Count de Marsigli

(sometimes referred to as L.F. Marsili or L.F. Marsigli) (1658-1730). The following is quoted from the Catholic Encyclopedia: "Count Luigi Ferdinando Marsigli (Lat. Marsilius, 1658-1730), was a member of an old patrician family and was educated in accordance with his rank. He supplemented his training by studying mathematics, anatomy, and natural history with the best teachers, and by personal observations. As a soldier he was sent by the Republic of Venice to Constantinople in 1679. There he investigated the condition of the Turkish forces, while at the same time he observed the surroundings of the Thracian

Bosporus. Both of these matters were fully reported by him. In 1680, when the Turks threatened to invade Hungary, he offered his services to the Emperor Leopold. On 2 July, 1683 (the feast of the Visitation), he fell wounded and was taken prisoner. He suffered as a slave until he was ransomed on 25 March, 1684 (the feast of the Annunciation). His reflections on these two feast days show his great piety: on these days, he says, on which the august protectress of the faithful is particularly honoured, she obtained for him two graces: salutary punishment for his past faults and an end to his punishment. After the long war he was employed to arrange the boundaries between the Venetian Republic, Turkey, and the Empire. During the war of the Spanish Succession he was second in command under Count d'Arco at the fortress of Breisach, which surrendered in 1703. Count d'Arco was beheaded because he was found guilty of capitulating before it was necessary, while Marsigli was stripped of all honours and commissions, and his sword was broken over him. His appeals to the emperor were in vain. Public opinion, however, acquitted him later of the charge of neglect or ignorance. In the midst of his work as a soldier he had always found enough leisure to devote to his favourite scientific pursuits. He drew plans, made astronomical observations, measured the speed and size of rivers, studied the products, the mines, the birds, fishes, and fossils of every land he visited, and also collected specimens of every kind, instruments, models, antiquities, etc. Finally he returned to Bologna and presented his entire collection to the Senate of Bologna in 1712. There he founded his "Institute of Sciences and Arts", which was formally opened in 1715. Six professors were put in charge of the different divisions of the institute. Later he established a printing-house furnished with the best types for Latin, Greek, Hebrew, and Arabic. This was put in charge of the Dominicans, and placed under the patronage of St. Thomas Aquinas. In 1727 he added to his other collections East India material which he collected in England and Holland. A solemn procession of the institute he founded was ordered for every twenty-five years on the feast of the Annunciation. In 1715 he was named foreign associate of the Paris Academy of Sciences; he was also a member of the Royal Society of London, and of Montpellier. His principal works are the following: "Osservazioni interne al Bosforo Tracio" (Rome, 1681); "Histoire physique de la mer", translated by Leclerc (Amsterdam, 1725); "Danubius Pannonico-mysicus, observationibus", etc. (7 vols., Hague, 1726); "L'Etat militaire de l'empire ottoman" (Amsterdam, 1732)." The genus Marsilea was published by Carl Linnaeus in 1753 and is called water-clover.

Matele'a: David Hollombe contributes the following: "Aublet did not explain Matelea and it is assumed it was a name of the plant in some native language in French Guiana. Aublet collected a lot of information on the uses of plants by native and other groups. Often, when he shortened or modified a native name to name a new genus he listed the original word, but he left many others unexplained." The Aublet he refers to was French botanist Jean Baptiste Christophore Fuséé Aublet (1720-1778) who was the first European to document the flora of French Guiana and was the author in 1775 of Histoire des Plantes de la Guiane Francoise and the genus name Matelea, which is called milkvine or spinypod.

Matricar'ia: from the Latin matrix, "the womb," the plant once having been used as a cure for female disorders. The genus Matricaria was published by Carl Linnaeus in 1753 and is called mayweed.

matricariifolium: with leaves like genus Matricaria.

matrona'lis: relating to March 1st, the Roman festival of the matrons or married ladies.

matsuda'na: named for Japanese botanist Matsuda Sadahisa (1857-1921).

mattamuskeeten'se: almost certainly refers to Lake Mattamuskeet, the largest natural freshwater lake in North Carolina, and home to the Mattamuskeet National Wildlife Refuge. The species Dichanthelium mattamuskeetensis is called the mattamuskeet panic grass.

matthew'sii: named for James Francis Matthews (1935- ), American botanist and educator. He was born in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and earned a Bachelor’s degree in 1957 from Atlantic Christian University, an M.S. degree from Cornell University in 1960, and a Ph.D from Emory University in 1962.  He was an assistant professor of biology at Western Kentucky University from 1962 to 1964, an associate professor of biology at the University of North Carolina, Charlotte, from 1964 to 1972, and a full professor at UNC from 1972 to 1996, and Chairman of the Department of Biology 1994-1996. He was a member of the American Society for Plant Taxonomy, the North Carolina Academy of Science, the Association of Southeastern Biologists, the International Association for Plant Taxonomy, and the South Appalachian Botanical Society which he was president of 1980-1982. He has been a private consultant since 1975. The species named for this individual is Stachys matthewsii.

max: the most, biggest or best.

max'ima: largest.

maximilia'ni: named for Prince Alexander Philipp Maximilian zu Wied-Neuwied (1782-1867), a German explorer,

ethnologist and naturalist. He became well known for his studies of the Northern Plains Indians, especially the Mandans and Hidatsas. He was born one of eight childen to an aristocratic Protestant family at their hereditary estate in Neuwied near the Rhine where his grandfather was the ruling count. He became well known for his studies of the Northern Plains Indians, especially the Mandans and Hidatsas. He was born one of eight childen to an aristocratic Protestant family at their hereditary estate in Neuwied near the Rhine, and his grandfather was the ruling count. He was greatly influenced by Johann

Friedrich Blumenbach, the Enlightenment's leading theorist on comparative anthropology, under whom he studied the biological sciences, and the naturalist Alexander von Humboldt, who became his mentor and friend after they met in Paris in 1814. He joined the Prussian army in 1800 during the Napoleonic Wars, rising to the rank of Major. Whenever he was free of military service, he pursued his scientific studies, and he enrolled at the University of Göttingen in 1811-1812 to study under Blumenbach.  He was given a leave of absence from the army in 1815 and, encouraged by Humboldt, and accompanied by Friedrich Sello, the great German botanist and early scientific explorers of the Brazilian flora, he led a pioneering expedition to southeast Brazil from 1815 to 1817 where he studied the flora and fauna of the Mata Atlantica and indigenous peoples such as the Botocudo, Purí, and Pataxo. Conflict among different tribes of the country impacted his explorations, but health considerations forced him to abandon the expedition and then he was robbed of a large part of his collection of insects and plants. Returning to Germany he occupied himself for several years with writing the two-volume Journey to Brazil in the Years 1815-1817 which provided Europeans their first real picture of isolated Brazilian tribes and was recognized as one of the greatest contributions to the knowledge of Brazil at the beginning of the nineteenth century. In the late 1820s Maximilian began preparations for a second major expedition, this time to the Great Plains region of the United States. he was a sympathetic recorder of the cultures of many of the Native American tribes he encountered on the banks of the Missouri River but also of nomadic peoples like the Sioux, Assiniboine, Plains Cree, Gros Ventres and Blackfoot tribes. He travelled with the Swiss painter Karl Bodmer who produced paintings that were acknowledged as among the most accurate and informative ever made, yet was cynical about financial failure he experienced and rare painted people again.  Prince Maximilian returned to Europe in 1834. Based on these explorations he published the two-volume Travels in the Interior of North America. Up until a few years before his death he contiued to publish accounts of hos North American experience.In 1870, the Museum of Natural History in New York acquired his natural history collection containing over 4,000 stuffed birds, 600 mammals, and 2,000 fishes and reptiles, and the Museum for Ethnology in West Berlin and the Linden Museum in Stuttgart received his Plains Indians artifacts. His legacy survives in the nomenclature of Plains plants and animals (for example, the sunflower Helianthus maximilianii and the Cretaceous saurian Mosasaurus maximiliani), and in both North and South America in the nomenclature of many other plants and animals, such as the orchid Maxillaria neuwiedii and the bird “Maximilian’s Parrot” (Pionus maximiliani). His name is also found on eight species of reptiles and on the plant genus Neuwiedia published in 1833 by Carl Ludwig von Blume. In 1845, he was elected as a member of the American Philosophical Society.

max'imum: largest.

mays: from the Taino/Mexican vernacular name mahiz for maize or indian corn.

Ma'zus: Stearn says from Greek mazos, "a teat or breast," alluding to two ridges on abaxial lip of corolla or to nipplelike tubercles at inner throat of corolla in M. pumilus, the tubercles closing the mouth of the corolla. The genus Mazus was published by João de Loureiro in 1790 and is called simply mazus.

mead'ia: named for Richard Mead (1673-1754), English physician. Wikipedia provides the following information. He was

born in London, and studied at Utrecht for three years under Johann Georg Graevius. Having decided to follow the medical profession, he then went to Leiden and attended the lectures of Paul Hermann and Archibald Pitcairne. In 1695 he graduated in philosophy and physic at Padua, and in 1696 he returned to London, entering at once on a successful practice. In 1702 he published Mechanical Account of Poisons and the following year was admitted to the Royal Society, to whose Transactions he contributed a paper on the parasitic nature of scabies. In that same year he was elected physician to St. Thomas' Hospital, and

was appointed to read anatomical lectures at the Surgeon's Hall. He attended Queen Anne on her deathbed in 1714 and in 1727 was appointed physician to George II, having previously served him in that capacity when he was Prince of Wales. While in the service of the king, Mead got involved in the creation of a new charity, the Foundling Hospital, both as a founding governor and as an advisor on all things medical. The Foundling Hospital was a home for abandoned children rather than a medical hospital, but it is said that through Dr. Mead's involvement, the Foundling was equipped with both a sick room and a pharmacy. Mead was also a Fellow of the College of Physicians and a Freemason. One of his avocations was the collection of paintings, rare books, classical sculpture, gems and zoological specimens, which he made available for study at the library in his Bloomsbury house where he was said to have some 10,000 volumes. He was also the author of A Short Discourse concerning Pestilential Contagion, and the Method to be used to prevent it (1720), which was of historic importance in the understanding of transmissible diseases. He died at his house in Bloomsbury in 1754. His London home later formed the basis of Great Ormond Street Hospital.

mead'ii: named for Samuel Barnum Mead (1799-1880), Illinois-based physician and botanist. Mead, a pioneer in both the

fields of medicine and botany, discovered the rare plant now known as "Mead's milkweed" (Asclepias meadii), which was placed on the list of U.S. endangered species in 1988. He was born in Greenwich, Connecticut, and graduated from Yale College class of 1820. He then attended medical college in NYC graduating with honors in 1824. In 1833 he went to Augusta, Illinois, and became the second regular physician to practice in Hancock County. After coming to Illinois he at once began to study the flora of the area and formed a herbarium. His work soon commanded the attention of botanists in New England

and Europe. He entered into a system of exchange and his collection increased steadily until his death. Many of the correspondents with whom Mead exchanged plant specimens were also physicians, who were drawn to botany during their medical training, which included the study of medical botany and the identification of plants with pharmacological uses. The year before Dr. Mead arrived in Illinois, the poet William Cullen Bryant had visited the state, and had found inspiration in the prairies, “boundless and beautiful,” “with flowers whose glory and whose multitude rival the constellations.” Surveying the prairies that covered most of Hancock County, Illinois, Dr. Mead immediately set to work cataloguing the plants he found there, including the two species that bear his name, Mead’s sedge (Carex meadii) and Mead’s milkweed (Asclepias meadii). In 1846, Dr. Mead published in The Prairie Farmer a 12-page “Catalogue of plants growing spontaneously in the state of Illinois, the principal part near Augusta, Hancock County.” The list includes 12 species of goldenrod and 42 species of sedge. In addition to being a botanist of worldwide reputation, he was a Latin scholar, read both the Hebrew and Greek Testaments with ease and was also the Smithsonian's Meteorologist for years. Dr. Mead was a member of the Illinois Historical Society and was one of its vice presidents. He was married to Arietta Purdy of North Salem, New York on January 9, 1822. They had six children, all deceased. He was married a second time on April 18, 1866 to Miss Martha Putnam with one daughter. The Knox College (Galesburg, IL) catalogue of 1881-1882 stated that "Dr. Mead was distinguished for his love of all good learning both scientific and classical and for the accuracy of his scholarship. He left a rich botanical collection containing ten thousand plants from various parts of the world. It is believed no other institution in the west possesses an equally rich and extensive botanical collection."

Mecardo'nia: named for Antonio de Meca Cardona y Rocaberti (Antoni de Meca-Cacador-Cardona i de Beatrin) (1726-1788), benefactor of Royal College of Surgery of Barcelona. Limited information about him is available, but he it seems he was a Spanish botanist and the fourth Marquis of Ciutadilla in Catalonia, and according to one source when he died he left to the city of Barcelona land for the creation of a botanical garden, although Wikipedia says he founded the botanical garden there in 1784. Mecardonia is a genus of herbacious species in the Plantaginaceae predominantly in South America and the southeastern United States, including Florida and Alabama, but may be found as far north as Virginia. The genus Mecardonia was published by Hipólito Ruiz Lopéz and José Antonio Pavon in 1794 and is called axil-flower or just mecardonia.

medeolo'ides: resembling genus Medeola.

me'dia/me'dium: meaning "the middle, between, intermediate" perhaps because the plant is midway between two others with regard to some identifying characteristic such as size.

Medica'go: derived from medike, or medick, the Greek name for alfalfa, which came to Greece from Medea where it is thought to have originated. Medicago is a genus of mostly low-growing flowering plants in species primarily located around the Caribbean, the most notable species being alfalfa. The genus Medicago was published in 1753 by Carl Linnaeus and is called medick or bur-clover.

Meehan'ia: named for Thomas Meehan (1826-1901), a writer, editor, nurseryman and horticulturist. He was born in

London and spent his early years on the Isle of Wight. His interest in plants was sparked by his father, who was a gardener, and he published his first botanical contribution at the age of twelve. His first scientific discovery published was The Sensitive Nature of the Stamens of the Portulaca when he was just 15, and at the same age he produced St. Clare, the first hybrid fuchsia known to horticulture. He secured his first job at Kew Gardens where he came under the influence of William Jackson Hooker and in 1848 travelled to Philadelphia,  where he worked first for Robert Buist at his Rosedale Nursery, and then

1850-1852 for the owner of Bartram's Garden, founded in 1728 by John Bartram. In 1853, he published his first book, The American Handbook of Ornamental Trees, about the trees in Bartram’s garden, and in that same year established Meehan’s Nurseries.  Meehan and family (brother Thomas and three sons) supplied plants to the United States and Europe for seven decades, expanding to cover 60 hectares in the twentieth century. Their specialty was ornamentals, such as Japanese maples. He was editor of the Gardener’s Monthly for thirty years beginning in 1859.  In 1891, he founded Meehan’s Monthly.  He was appointed State Botanist by the Governor, and was a member of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, American Philosophical Society, the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, the American Association of Nurserymen, the American Pomological Society, the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, and the Pennsylvania Agricultural Society. At one time he was an agricultural or horticultural editor or regular contributor to half a dozen magazines. He wrote his own agriculture columns for five newspapers and was the author of Native Flowers and Ferns of the United States published in 1878 and consisting of four volumes describing and illustrating, in colour, over 300 species. He was largely responsible for the preservation of Bartram’s Garden, the oldest surviving botanical garden in North America, by means of a campaign which he organized after the garden passed from the ownership of the Bartram family, and then of Andrew Eastwick, and was in danger of being developed. He corresponded with foremost botanists William Darlington, Josiah Hoopes, William Saunders, George Engelmann, John Torrey, Asa Gray, Maxwell T. Masters, Ferdinand von Mueller, George Nicholson and Charles Darwin, and was recognized as one of the leading horticulturists of his day. The genus Meehania was published by Nathaniel Lord Britton in 1894 and is called meehania.

megaceph'alus: large-headed.

Melampy'rum: from the Greek melas or melam, "black," and pyros, "wheat," alluding to the fact that if seeds of a Melampyrum species are included with wheat or other grain that is ground up into bread-making flour then the resulting bread becomes discoloured (blackened). The genus Melampyrum was published by Carl Linneus in 1753 and is called cow-wheat.

melanocar'pa: black-fruited.

Melanth'ium: from Greek melas, "black," and anthos, "flower," alluding to the black perianth in some species. The genus Melanthium was published by Carl Linnaeus in 1753 and is called bunch flowers.

Me'lia: from Latin melia, derived from the Greek melos, "limb," and New Latin -ia, an ending of Greek and Latin nouns indicating quality of or state of being, meaning "manna ash," the common name of Fraxinus ornus. Melia was the classical name used by Theophrastus for the flowering ash because of the similarity of the leaves. In Greek mythology, Melia was an Oceanid, daughter of the Titans Oceanus and Tethys. The genus Melia was published in 1753 by Carl Linnaeus and is called chinaberry.

Mel'ica: from the Greek name melike deriving from mel or meli, "honey," and the suffix -ica, "belonging to," and applied to a kind of sorghum or other plant with sweet sap. The genus Melica was published by Carl Linnaeus in 1753 and is simply called melic.

melicar'ia: similar to Melica, sometimes called melic mannagrass.

Melilo'tus: from the Greek words meli, "honey," and lotos, a leguminous plant. The genus Melilotus was published by Philip Miller in 1754 and is called sweet-clover or melilot.

Melis'sa: from ancient Greek mélissa, “bee, honey, or honeybee,” in turn from meli, "honey." According to the herbalist John Gerard, bees "are delighted with this herbe above all others." Melissa was also the name of a Cretan princess who first discovered how to get honey. One of the mythological stories about her is that Melissa was a nymph who discovered and taught the use of honey and from whom bees were believed to have received their name. She was one of the nymph nurses of Zeus, but rather than feeding the baby milk, Melissa, appropriately for her name, fed him honey. Or, alternatively, the bees brought honey straight to his mouth. Because of her, Melissa became the name of all the nymphs who cared for Zeus when he was a baby. The genus Melissa is called balm and was published by Carl Linnaeus in 1753.

me'lo: from the Latin melo, a shorted form of melopepo, an apple-shaped melon.

Meloth'ria: the ancient Greek name melothron for another plant, derived from melon, "apple," (but also the generic name for all fruits) and thrion, "a certain food," for some vining fruit species probably Bryonia. Wikipedia adds: 'kind of white grape' in reference to small edible grapevine fruits born by the genus. The genus Melothria was published in 1753 by Carl Linnaeus and has been called melonette.

Menisper'mum: from Greek mene, "the crescent moon," and sperma, "a seed," referring to the shape of the seed. Species in the genus have been called moonseed. The genus Menispermum was published by Carl Linnaeus in 1753 and is called moonseed.

Men'tha: a Latin name for an unfortunate Greek nymph named Mentha who got herself turned into a mint plant, and a genus of culinary herbs named for her, this is one of the oldest plant names still in use. The genus Mentha was published by Carl Linnaeus in 1753 and is called mint.

Menyan'thes: there are a number of explanations for the derivation of this generic name. (1) from Greek menyanthos, a water plant mentioned by Theophrastus. Species in the genus have been called bogbean or buckbean. (2) Wiktionary says: "From Ancient Greek mēnúanthos, “a water plant”, possibly from mḗnē, “month, crescent moon,” or mēnúō, “to disclose,” and ánthos, “flower,” in reference to the sequential opening of flowers on the inflorescence." (3) Umberto Quattrocchi suggests that it might derive from minyos, “small, tiny” and anthos. (4) The Flora of Wisconsin says Menyanthes is an ancient Theophrastian name for "month" and "flower," referring to the length of time it blooms." The genus Menyanthes was published by Carl Linnaeus in 1753 and is called buckbean or bogbean.

Menzies'ia/menzies'ii/men'ziesii: named for Archibald Menzies (1754-1842), Scottish botanist and surgeon. The following

sketch is from the Mediterranean Gardening Society: "Archibald Menzies was born in 1754 at Styx, an old branch house of the Menzies of Culdares near Perthshire in Scotland.  Nearly all of the Menzies in the vicinity of Castle Menzies were either gardeners or botanists; an old record shows that seven of this name were employed at the same time at the Castle gardens.  It was here that Archibald Menzies received his first lessons in botany, and where he later added new varieties of trees discovered during his travels.  Menzies studied both botany and medicine in Edinburgh, and later became assistant to a

surgeon in Carnarvon. He entered the Royal Navy and served on the Halifax Station in Nova Scotia.  'He has been several years on the Halifax Station in His Majesty's service as a surgeon, where he has paid unremitting attention to his favourite study of botany, and through the indulgence of the Commander-in-Chief had good opportunities afforded him,' stated a 1786 letter of introduction to Sir Joseph Banks of Kew Gardens.  [It appears that Menzies was another one of the many botanists who benefited from the influence of the great British naturalist.]  Menzies was delighted to be appointed surgeon to an expedition around Cape Horn to the North Pacific with the ship Prince of Wales, a voyage which took nearly three years.  He sent back plants and brought home a ship's company in good health.  Menzies had attained some fame as a botanist, and was appointed by the British Government in 1790 as naturalist to accompany Captain Vancouver in the Discovery on a voyage around the world [1791-1795]. When the surgeon aboard the Discovery became ill and was sent home, Menzies was appointed in his place. Captain Vancouver commended his services, stating in the preface to his journal of the voyage that not one man died of ill health under his care.  Menzies' formal instructions for the voyage were detailed and extensive.  He was to investigate the whole of the natural history of the countries visited, enumerate all trees, shrubs, plants, grasses, ferns and mosses by their scientific names as well as the language of the natives, and in view of the prospect of sending out settlers from England, ascertain whether plants cultivated in Europe were likely to thrive. He was to dry specimens and collect seeds, and any curious or valuable plants that could not be propagated from seeds were to be dug up and planted in the glass frame provided for the purpose aboard Discovery.  Menzies was charged with keeping a regular journal of all occurrences, together with a complete collection of specimens of animals, vegetables and minerals, as well as clothes, arms, implements and manufactures of the native peoples. Menzies' work on the voyage was considered by the government as one of the most important objectives of the expedition. Captain Vancouver and Menzies were usually on good terms, although some conflicts arose.  The welfare of the plants in the glazed frame on the quarter deck once induced such a heated dispute that Vancouver threatened to have Menzies court-martialled. [Banks had warned Menzies about Captain Vancouver, with whom he had sailed on Captain Cook's first Pacific voyage, and specifically about his prickly nature.  On the last leg of their return journey to England, some of the ondeck plant frames were left uncovered and many of the plants contained therein were damaged or destroyed.  Menzies wanted Captain Vancouver to punish the man responsible, and apparently spoke to Vancouver in what the Captain considered to be an insolent and disrespectful manner. A month later, after receiving an apology from Menzies, Vancouver withdrew his charges.] After the voyage of the Discovery, Menzies served with the Navy in the West Indies.  He received the degree of M.D. at Aberdeen University in 1799, and upon retiring from the Navy followed his profession of doctor and surgeon at Notting Hill, London.  Menzies died in 1842 at the age of 88. Genial of disposition and painstakingly thorough in his work, Archibald Menzies was held in high regard throughout his long life."  One of Menzies' more curious finds resulted from a dinner while in Chile, during which he was introduced to some nuts which he was unable to identify. He placed some in his pocket and several sprouted on the voyage home.  It was thus that the monkey puzzle tree Araucaria araucana came to be introduced into Europe.  A tree seen before by visiting naturalists from offshore in the American Northwest is what has come to be known as Pseudotsuga menziesii or the Douglas-fir, samples of which were first collected by Menzies on the island which bears the name of Captain Vancouver.  This species is not a true fir, but a distinct species, and bears the name of the Scottish botanist David Douglas who identified it in 1826.  Menzies collected thousands of specimens but it was not always with the assistance of Captain Vancouver who apparently sometimes confined Menzies to the ship when he sent other sailors ashore. However, Menzies arranged to have specimens smuggled on board. His large collection may be seen today at The Linnaean Society in London. An unabridged note in the online Jepson Manual 2 says: "In Scottish, Menzies pronounced "Mingis", with a soft "g", spoken as in "singer," so the proper pronunciation of this epithet, following the guideline that the original pronunciation of the name should be maintained in the epithet as much as possible, should be 'Ming-is-ee-eye.' The genus Menziesia was published by James Edward Smith in 1791 and is called minniebush.

mercuriali'na: I can find no specific derivation or ertmology for mercurialina, btu since it is as closely spelled as mercurialis, the derivation is probably similar. The Latin mercurialis can mean either of or pertaining to the god or planet Mercury, or having qualities suggestive of mercury, i.e. quick, quick-witted, volatile, changeable, fickle, flighty, erratic.

meridiona'le: based on information in David Gledhill's Names of Flowering Plants and Stearn's Dictionary of Plant Names, I was under the belief that this epithet meant "flowering at mid-day." However, a more likely explanation has come to me thanks to Michael Simpson. Meridionalis derives from meridies, ('south' or 'noon') and alis, from the earlier medidies, derived from medius ('middle') and dies ('day'). According to the Jepson Manual, Eriogonum douglasii var. meridionale has the common name of southern wild buckwheat, and the authors specifically refer to its southern range as opposed to the northern var. douglasii. Another taxon is Salvia pachyphylla subsp. meridionalis which subspecies is the southernmost of the group. The epithets meridionalis and meridionale are ones that have been used frequently for fishes, ants, mammals, sea urchins, beetles, mushrooms, snails, fungi, and birds as well as plants, and would appear in many cases to refer to some geographical species distribution rather than to a blooming time which in any event would refer only to plants. The International Plant Name Index lists literally dozens of examples of these names being used at the specific and subspecific level. One final point about the etymology of meridionalis is that there could be a connection between the derivations 'south' and 'noon' in that noon is when the sun (in the northern hemisphere, north of the tropic of Cancer anyway) is directly to the south, although this seems like a tenuous connection.

Merten'sia: named for German botanist Franz Karl Mertens (1764-1831). "Franz Carl [Karl]Mertens was born on 3 April

1764 in Bielefeld and died in Bremen 19 June 1831. His father, Clamor Mertens, was the only son of a distinguished but impoverished noble family. Because there was no money to send Franz Carl to school, he was taught at home by his father, but his mother was determined that Franz Carl would attend classes to prepare him to enter a university. Through her efforts with various city officials, she was able to arrange that Franz Carl take classes with the son of an official. Once given the opportunity, Mertens' intelligence and industriousness attracted the attention of individuals able to guide and assist him with

the financing of his education. He studied theology and language at the University of Halle and was offered a teaching position at Bremen Polytechnic College. His days were taken up with lessons and preparing class lectures, but he devoted every spare minute to his main interest - the study of botany. Through a friend he met Albrecht Wilhelm Roth (1757-1834), German physician and botanist at Oldenburg. Mertens and Roth went on collecting trips together, and Mertens described a number of algal species and illustrated all of the algae in the third volume of Roth's Catalecta botanica (1806). Mertens travelled throughout Europe and Scandinavia visiting botanists and gardens. He exchanged letters and specimens with many notable natural scientists." [from the Bulletin of the Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation, Vol. 11, No. 1 (spring 1999)] It was in 1961 that Dr. Mildred Mathias of UCLA learned that a collection of these letters was in the possession of ancestors of Mertens who by coincidence lived in Los Angeles, and in April 1962, the Mertens collection was purchased by Mr. and Mrs. Roy A. Hunt and deposited in the Archives of the Hunt Botanical Library. The genus Mertensia was published by Albrecht Wilhelm Roth in 1797 and is called bluebell.

mesochor'ea: from the middle country, region or land, from the midlands.

mexica'na: of or from Mexico, or in some way having something to do with Mexico.