Sabat'ia: named for Liberato Sabbati (1714-1779), an Italian botanist who was the Curator of the Rome Botanic Garden (Hortus Romanus). He was a practicing surgeon when he took over the garden, and travelled extensively through neighboring countries collecting plants to display there, His first publication was the Synopsis plantarum quae in solo Romano luxuriantur (A synopsis of the plants flourishing in Roman soil), which was a catalog of plants arranged largely according to the system of Joseph Pitton de Tournefort. Together with Georgio Bonelli, a physician and professor of botany at the University of Rome, he undertook a much more extensive work, the first volume of which appeared in 1772, under the title Hortus Romanus juxta systema Tournefortianum paulo. The second volume appeared in 1774, executed like the first, containing likewise one hundred plates, but the name of Niccolò Martelli replaced that of Bonelli, without indication of the cause of the change. This new author announced that he had added Linnaeus' characters to the plants, which were still described by Liberato Sabbati. They continued this work together until the fifth volume which appeared in 1778, but in the sixth, published in 1784 after Liberato's death, his son Constantino Sabbati (1734?-?), also a gardener and custodian at the Hortus Romanus, replaced him. Constantino's name appeared again in the seventh volume in 1784, but there the work stopped. Although these volumes were by some considered of mediocre quality, the result nevertheless became an impressive, eight-volume folio handbook of 800 hand-coloured plant pictures (100 per volume) with texts which represented a massive amount of work. Plant specimens were drawn by Cesare Ubertino, Liberato and Constantino Sabbati, and engraved by the renowned botanical and ornithological artist Maddalena Bouchard, and all pages one-by-one were hand-coloured by a team of able artisans.The genus Sabatia was published in 1763 by Michel Adanson and is variously called rose-pink, rose-gentian, marsh-pink, sea-pink or sabatia. It is not known why Adanson chose to spell the genus name as Sabatia when it honored a man named Sabbati, and even though later authors attempted to change the spelling to Sabbatia, Article 82 of the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature forbade these attempts and the name remains Sabatia.

Sac'charum: from the Greek sakcharon, "sugar," and other similar words in Malay and Sanskrit for "sugar or the juice made from sugar cane." The genus Saccharum was published by Carl Linnaeus in 1753 and is called plumegrass.

Sacciolep'is: with baglike or cuplike scales, from the Greek sakkos or sakkion, a small bag, sac or pouch," and lepis, "a scale," referring to the inflated shape of the upper glume. The genus Sacciolepis was published by George Valentine Nash in 1901 and is called cupscale.

sachalinen'sis: of or from the island of Sakhalin north of Japam.

Sagi'na: from the Latin sagina, "stuffing, fattening," from the "fattening" qualities of forage on which sheep quickly thrive. The genus Sagina was published by Carl Linnaeus in 1753 and is called pearlwort.

sagitta'lis: arrow-shaped or resembling an arrow or arrowhead, from sagitta, “an arrow, shaft, bolt,” and the adjectival suffix‎ -ālis.

Sagittar'ia: from Latin sagittārius, “pertaining to arrows,” in reference to the arrow shape of the leaves of many species. The genus Sagittaria was published by Carl Linnaeus and is called arrowhead.

sagitta'ta: from the Latin for "arrow" and hence sagitate.

sagittifo'lia: with leaves that have an arrow shape.

salicar'ia: resembling Salix, the willow.

salicifo'lia: with leaves like Salix.

Salicor'nia: from the Greek words sal, "salt," and cornus, "a horn," because these are saline plants with hornlike branches. The genus Salicornia is called Russian thistle and was published by Carl Linnaeus in 1753.

salig'na: resembling the willow.

sali'na: from the Latin sal or salis, "salt," and the -inus suffix denoting a belonging to or a resemblance to, thus salty or growing in salty places.

Sa'lix: a Latin name for the willow and meaning "to leap or spring" in reference to its fast growth. The genus Salix was published by Carl Linnaeus in 1753 and is called willow.

Salpichro'a: from the Greek salpe, "trumpet," and chroa, "color or complexion," because of the form and color of the flowers. The genus Salpichroa was published by John Miers in 1845 and is called simply salpichroa.

Salso'la: from the Latin salsus for "salty." The genus Salsola was published by Carl Linnaeus in 1753.

saltuen'sis: of woodland meadows, of or belonging to a forest-pasture, woodland pasture, from Latin saltus, "a woodland." The species Poa saltuensis has been called old pasture bluegrass.

Sal'via: comes from the Latin salvus, "safe, well, sound," from its supposed medicinal value, and an herb, Salvia, used for healing. The genus Salvia was published by Carl Linnaeus in 1753 and is called sage or clary.

Salvin'ia: named for the Italian academic Antonio Maria Salvini (1633-1729), a professor of the Greek language at Florence who helped his friend the Italian botanist Pier Antonio Micheli with his botanical studies. The genus Salvinia was published by Jean François Séguier in 1754 and is called water spangles.

Sambu'cus: from the Greek word sambuke for a musical instrument made from elderwood, and a name used by Pliny for a tree possibly related to the elder tree. The genus Sambucus was published by Carl Linnaeus in 1753.

Samo'lus: a Latin name meaning a plant growing in wet places, probably of Celtic origin and known to the Druids, and referring possibly to this plants curative powers. The genus Samolus was published by Carl Linnaeus in 1753 and is called water-pimpernel.

sangamonen'sis: there is a river named Sangamon, a tributary of the Illinois River, and a county named Sangamon in the state of Illinois, and Carex tribuloides var. sangamonensis is a species in Illinos so this would seem to be the derivation. Another connection that may not be of significance but is interesting is that the author of the taxa, Ira Waddell Clokey, began his college career at the University of Illinois.

sanguina'lis: pertaining to blood, from the Latin sanguinalis, "bloody."

Sanguinar'ia: from Latin sanguis, "blood," and -aria, "pertaining to," in reference to the copious yellow-red sap. The genus Sanguinaria was published by Carl Linnaeus in 1753 and is called bloodroot.

sanguin'ea: blood-red.

Sanguisor'ba/sanguisor'ba: from the Latin sanguis, "blood," and sorbere, "to soak up or staunch," from the reputed power of these plants to stop bleeding. The genus Sanguisorba was published by Carl Linnaeus in 1753.

Sanic'ula: diminutive of the Latin word sanare meaning "to heal." The genus Sanicula, called sanicle or snakeroot, was published by Carl Linnaeus in 1753.

Saponar'ia: sometimes called soapwort, the name derives from the Latin sapo, "soap," for its soap-producing qualities. The genus Saponaria was published by Carl Linnaeus in 1753 and is called soapwort.

Sarcocorn'ia: from the Greek sarco, "fleshy," and Latin cornis, "horned," in reference to the appearance of the plants. The genus Sarcocornia is called woody glasswort and was published by Andrew John Scott in 1978.

sar'dous: of or from Sardinia.

sarmentos'um: twiggy, with long slender runners.

Sarracen'ia: named for the French-born physician Michel Sarrasin (Sarracenus) (1659-1734), born in Burgundy and an

emigrant to what was then the colony of New France in North America, a physician/surgeon, naturalist and plant collector in Quebec. He returned to France only twice during his lifetime but while in Paris spent time at the Jardin des Plantes where he met and studied under Joseph Pitton de Tournefort who was the primary inspiration for his lifetime study of botany. He was responsible for the discovery of sarsparilla, and performed the first mastectomy in North America. He was not only interested in plants, but described the characteristics of beavers, muskrats, porcupines, harbor seals and wolverines. His

plant specimens are currently at the Museum National d’Histoire Naturelle in Paris. Despite the above, another source says that Sarracenia was derived from another French physician named Jean Antoine Sarrasin (1547-1598) who translated a work of Dioscorides. The genus Sarracenia was published by Carl Linnaeus in 1753 and is called pitcher plant.

sarracho'ides: The species Solanum sarrachoides was published in 1846 by German botanist Otto Sendtner. The -oides ending usually means "like or resembling," so the question that arises about the species epithet sarrachoides, because it is often spelled as sarachoides, is whether it refers to the genus Saracha or Sarracha, both of which exist. Sendtner was thought to have named this species after the genus Saracha Ruiz & Pav. (after the taxa now part of the genus Jaltomata Schltdl.), but in Flora Brasiliensis (Sendtner, 1846), he used both "Saracha" and "Sarracha," and Edmonds (1986) determined that the name is correctly spelled S. sarrachoides following the original publication, and thus refers to genus Sarracha.

Sass'afras: Stearn says: "Derivation of the name for these handsome trees is dubious, but it probably came from an American indian name in Florida," however Gledhill says "from the Spanish name salsafras, for its medicinal use in breaking bladder and kidney stones (cognate with Saxifraga)." Wiktionary says: "From Spanish sasafrás, possibly from Latin saxifragus, “stone-breaking,” from the habit of certain plants growing in cracks in boulders." A website of Bellarmine University in Louisville, Kentucky provides this interesting information: "Sassafrass is a native plant to North America and was used by the Native Americans for various medicinal cures and a cooking spice (this was recorded as early as 1577).  The Choctaw Indians first used the dried ground leaves as a seasoning and thickener.  In 1578, Sir Walter Raleigh brought it back to England from the Virginia Colony. The name "Sassafras", applied by the Spanish botanist Monardes in the sixteenth century, is said to be a corruption of the Spanish word for “saxifrage” (a large plant genus)." The genus Sassafras was published by Jan Svatopluk Presl in 1825 and is called simply sassafras.

sati'va/sati'vum/sati'vus: from Latin sativus "cultivated, that which is sown or planted," from satus, past participle of serere, "to sow, plant seed," indicating the plant is a cultivated one.

Sature'ja: a Latin name for the herb savory which was well known to the ancients, and which was recommended by Virgil as an excellent bee tree to plant around hives. The genus Satureja was published by Carl Linnaeus in 1753.

Saurur'us: from Greek sauros, "a lizard," and oura, "a tail," from the dense spicate inflorescence. The common name of Saururus cernuus, which is one of only two species in the genus, is appropriately enough lizard's tail. The genus Saururus was published by Carl Linnaeus in 1753 and is called lizard's-tail or water-dragon.

saxat'ilis: growing among rocks, from saxum, "rock or stone."

saxifra'ga: from the Latin saxum, "a rock," and frango, "to break," and referring to the fact that by growing in rock crevices they appear to break rocks.

scab'ra/scab'rum: rough.

scabra'ta: roughened. Carex scabrata is commonly called eastern rough sedge.

scabrius'culum: somewhat scabrid or rough, diminutive of scaber, "rough," and culus, suffix added to form a diminutive.

scan'dens: climbing.

scapo'sa: with scapes, leafless flower stems.

scario'sa: scarious, shriveled, thin, dry, often translucent and not green; used of thin, dry organs.

scelera'tus: wicked, hurtful, defiling, from the Latin scelero, "to pollute, defile," and scelerus, "abominable."

Sceptrid'ium: from the Greek sceptrum, "sceptre or staff," referring to the upright spore-bearing leaf. The genus Sceptridium was published in 1905 by Harold Lloyd Lyon.

Schedonor'us: Gledhill says near-the-margin, referring to the insertion of the awn. Cal Poly Humboldt's website "Derivation of the Generic Names of North American Grasses" says from Greek for "near to," and "tail," referring to the short awn of the lower glume. Possibly derived from Greek schedon, "close, almost, all but, perhaps."

Schizach'ne: from the Greek schizo for "split" and achne for "chaff," referring to the split lemma tip. The genus Schizachne was published by Eduard Hackel in 1909 and is called false melic.

Schizachyr'ium: Gledhill says split-chaff, referring to the bifid fertile lemmas, and a website of Iowa State University says from the Greek words schizo, "to split," and achyron, "chaff," referring to the divided lemma. The genus Schizachyrium was published by Christian Gottfried Daniel Nees von Esenbeck in 1829 and is called little bluestem.

Schoenoplec'tus: from the Greek schoinos, "rush, reed or cord," and plektos, "twisted, plaited." The genus Schoenoplectus was published by Eduard Palla in 1888 and is called bulrush or tule.

schoenopra'sum: specific epithet for chives, derived from the Greek schoinos, "rush," and prason, "leek," with reference to its rush-like leaves.

Schran'kia: named for Franz von Paula von Schrank (1747-1835), a German priest, botanist and entomologist. The

following is quoted from the Catholic Encyclopedia: “At the age of nine he commenced his studies at the Jesuit College at Passau, and at fifteen entered the Society of Jesus. The first year of his novitiate was spent at Vienna, and the second at the college in Oedenburg, Hungary, where Father Sluha, a former missionary in Brazil, interested him in the study of nature. His higher studies were made successively at Raab, Tyrnau, and Vienna. His strength having been impaired by excessive exertion during a botanical expedition, he was, in 1769, appointed instructor at the college at Linz. After the suppression of his order,

he moved to Vienna where he was ordained priest in December, 1774, and gained his doctorate of theology in 1776. Having returned to his native place, he published his first studies in natural history; Beiträge zur Naturgeschichte (Contributions to Natural History) in 1776. In the same year he was called to the chair of mathematics and physics at the lyceum at Amberg and afterwards to that of rhetoric at Burghausen. Here he found an opportunity of studying agriculture. In 1784 he became professor of agriculture, mining, forestry, botany and zoology at the University of Ingolstadt (later removed to Landshut). In 1809 the Munich Academy of Sciences elected him a member on the condition of his undertaking the direction of the newly-established botanical garden. To this task he devoted the rest of his life. Possessed of comprehensive knowledge and keen judgment, he was highly esteemed and received many public marks of honour and distinction. Acting several times as rector during the years of his professorship at Ingolstadt and Landshut, he had on many occasions to defend the interests of the university during the French and Austrian occupations.” The genus Schrankia was published in 1792 by Friedrich Kasimir Medikus.

schreb'eri: named for German naturalist and physician Johann Christian Daniel Von Schreber (1739-1810). He was born

in Weissensee, Thuringia, Germany, and studied medicine, theology and natural history at Halle in Germany and Uppsala in Sweden under Carl Linnaeus, receiving his MD degree in 1760. He became a practicing physician and then after studying botany in Berlin a professor of pharmacology, botany, economics and administration at Erlangen in Bavaria in 1770. He was made director of the Erlangen botanical garden in 1773, and devoted much of his time to translating Linnaeus’ complete works into German. He began writing a multivolume set of books entitled Die Säugethiere in Abbildungen nach der

Natur mit Beschreibungen, which at the time was the most comprehensive standard work on the mammals of the world and was unparalleled for many years. Many of the animals included were given a scientific name for the first time, following Linnaeus’ binomial system.  He became professor of natural history in 1776. He was the editor of the 8th edition of Linnaeus’ Genera Plantarum (1789–1791), and was elected a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in 1787. He was knighted in 1791. From 1791 until his death in 1810, he was the president of the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1795. Schreber also wrote on entomology, notably Schreberi Novae Species Insectorvm. His herbarium collection has been preserved in the Botanische Staatssammlung München since 1813. He was also the author of Lithographia Halensis (1758) and Theses medicae (1761). He died at Erlangen.

schuet'tei: named for Joachim Heinrich Schuette (1821-1908). Little is available online about this individual, but he was a German-born American botanist and journalist who emigrated to the United States in 1874. He edited various German language newspapers, including Volk Zeitung and Wisconsin Staats-Zeitung, in Green Bay, Wisconsin. He was editor of Volk Zeitung from 1874 to 1879, and the Staats-Zeitung from 1876 to 1877. He published “The Hawthorns of Northeastern Wisconsin" in Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington. He bequeathed his large herbarium to the Wisconsin Field Museum.

Schwal'bea: named for Christian Georg Schwalbe (1691-1761), Dutch physician and botanist wih a circle of acquaintances who included chemists and botanists including Carl Linnaeus who published the genus in 1753. Schwalbe was the brother-in-law of German metallurgist and chemist Johann Andreas Cramer. He was the author of De China Officinarum (1715). The genus Schwalbea was published by Carl Linnaeus in 1753 and is called chaffseed.

schweinitz'ii: named for Lewis David de Schweinitz (1780-1834), German-American botanist and mycologist, considered

by some to be the 'Father of North American Mycology.' He was born in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, a great-grandson of Count Nikolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf und Pottendorf, founder and patron of the Moravian Church, and was in a Moravian community school in Nazareth, Pa.,  for eleven years. His father hailed from a distinguished family from Silesia, Germany. In 1798 he went to Germany and was educated in the Moravian college and theological seminary at Niesky (Saxony). In 1805 he published his first work, the Conspectus Fungorum in Lusatiae in collaboration with his teacher, Professor J.B.

Albertini. Wikipedia provides the following: “In 1807 he went to Gnadenberg (in Silesia), then subsequently to Gnadau to work as a preacher in the Moravian church. A work appointment in the United States led him on a route through Denmark and Sweden, to avoid Napoleon's operations. This path allowed him to meet with some of the academics at the University of Kiel in Holstein, where he was bestowed with an honorary Ph.D. After returning to the United States in 1812, he settled in Salem, North Carolina (now called Old Salem), working as an administrator of church estates. The results of his mycological research in this location would later be published as Synopsis Fungorum Carolinæ Superioris in 1822. Schweinitz was elected to membership in the American Philosophical Society in 1817. The Synopsis was published without Schweinitz's knowledge; in 1818, he had simply given a list of North Carolina fungi to a friend in Leipzig. When he unexpectedly received prints of the published work four years later, he was ‘surprised but pleased.’ The Synopsis listed 1,373 species of fungi, and named and described 320 novel species. These new discoveries included such now widely known species as Lactarius indigo and Cantharellus cinnabarinus. He was a member of various learned societies in the United States, Germany, and France. A new genus of plant was named Schweinitzia (now referred to as Monotropsis) in his honor, and the polypore [a type of fungi]  Phaeolus schweinitzii is named in his honor. While a resident of Salem he was elected President of the University of North Carolina, which honor he declined because it involved relinquishing work in the Moravian church. In 1821 he returned to his native village in Pennsylvania and continued his studies until his death. His herbarium, which comprised at the time of his death the largest private collection of plants in the United States, he bequeathed to the Academy of Natural Sciences at Philadelphia.” Despite his career path as an ecclesiastic, he had from his youth been devoted to the study of botany, and he published many papers and monographs that contributed greatly to the mycological literature. He was married to Louisa Amelia Ledoux, and was survived by four sons, all of whom entered the ministry, doing faithful and efficient service in the Church. He died in 1834 just five days short of his 54th birthday.

scillo'ides: resembling genus Scilla, a genus in the Lily family.

scirpo'ides: resembling genus Scirpus.

Scir'pus: a Latin name used by Pliny for a rush or bulrush. The genus Scirpus was published by Carl Linnaeus in 1753 and is called bulrush.

sclar'ea: etymology uncertain. Clary. an Italian plant name, From Medieval Latin sclareia and the Greek word skeria which means hardness in reference to the hard parts of the flower petals. Salvia sclarea is a plant in the mint family called clary or clary sage.

Scleran'thus: from the Greek scleros, "hard, dry, harsh," and anthos, "flower," alluding to the hardened fruiting calyx or hypanthium. The genus was published by CarlLinnaeus in 1753 and is called knawel.

Scler'ia: from the Greek word scleria, meaning "hardness," referring to the fruit. The species in the genus Scleria have commonly been called nutrushes. The genus was published by Peter Jonas Bergius in 1765 and is called nutrush.

Sclerochlo'a:

Sclerolep'is: from skleros, "hard, harsh, cruel," and lepis, "scale," thus hard-scaled. The geus Sclerolepis was published in 1816 by Alexandre Henri Cassini, has only a single species and is called just sclerolepis or bogbutton.

scopar'ia/scopar'ium/scopar'ius: broom-like, from the Latin scopae or scopa, "broom or sweeper," alluding to the plant structure and in particular the dried tops of the Scotch broom.

scorpio'ides: resembling a scorpion.

scribneria'num: named for Frank Lamson-Scribner (1851-1938), an American botanist, the first United States Department

		of Agriculture scientist hired to study diseases in economic plants, and the first USDA agrostologist (grass specialist). He was born in Cambridgeport, Massachusetts. His parents died when he was 3 years old and he was adopted by the Virgil Scribner family near Manchester, Maine. He received preparatory education at Hebron Academy, Kents Hill School, and Coburn Classical Institute. and graduated from Maine State College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts in 1873. He taught botany in Maine high schools before becoming an officer with Girard College in Philadelphia in 1877. He was the botanist

for the Northern Transcontinental Survey and completed an inventory of grasses and forages in Montana in the summer of 1883. In May 1885, he was appointed as an assistant in the USDA Division of Botany. His role was to study parasitic fungi affecting crops and his innovative approach established the foundation for applied plant pathology at the USDA. He became the chief of the USDA Section of Mycology in 1886 and focused on the control of downy mildew and black rot in grapes. In 1887, he established USDA stations for controlled experiments with farm owners as special agents. The section was also renamed as the Section of Vegetable Pathology. In 1888, Lamson-Scriber left the USDA to become the head of the Agricultural Experiment Station of the University of Tennessee. By the time he joined the faculty at UT in 1888, he had 73 professional publications to his credit. He introduced the laboratory method of teaching in botany, completed the acquisition of Gattinger’s herbarium for UT, and published the first US study of grasses (The Grasses of Tennessee), that was the basis of one of UT’s gold-medal winning exhibits at the Paris Exposition of 1900. He also published the first American book on plant diseases, Fungus Diseases of Grape and Other Plants and Their Treatment, and identified a new disease of the Irish potato occurring on the Cumberland Plateau, determining that the cause was a previously undescribed roundworm or nematode. In 1894 he returned to become the leader of the new USDA Division of Agrostology. He held this role until 1901, when he became the Chief of the Insular Bureau of Agriculture for the Philippine Islands. Upon his return from the Philippines, he was appointed to the Government Exhibit Board where he prepared exhibits for international exhibitions past his retirement in 1922. He was also the author in 1897 of American Grasses (Illustrated). He was honored with the genus Scribneria which was published by Eduard Hackel in 1886. Some references hyphenate his name and some do not. He died in Washington D.C. of pneumonia at the age of 86.

Scrophular'ia: named in 1474 by an Italian physician who noticed the resemblance between the rhizomal knobs of some species and the tubercular condition of human lymph nodes called scrophula. The genus Scrophularia was published by Carl Linnaeus in 1753 and is called figwort.

scrophulariifo'lia: with leaves like Scrophularia.

Scutellar'ia: from the Latin scutella, "a small dish, tray or platter," and referring to the sepals which appear this way during the fruiting period. The genus Scutellaria was published by Carl Linnaeus in 1753 and is called skullcap.

scutella'ta: from Latin scutella or scutellata, "like a small dish."

Seca'le: ancient Latin name for rye. The genus Secale was published by Carl Linnaeus in 1753.

secali'nus: resembling rye or genus Secale.

secun'da/secun'dus: one-sided, secund, applies to leaves or flowers arranged on one side of a stalk only.

secunda'tum: Gledhill says "following behind, one-sided, secund."

secundiflor'a: one-sided, secund, applied to leaves or flowers arranged on one side of the stem only.

secundira'mea: with secund branching, with branches all facing in the same direction, from Latin ramus, "a branch."

Securig'era: axe-bearing, from Latin securis, "an axe," and gero, "to bear, carry," alluding to the shape of the pods. The genus Securigera was published by Augustin Pyramus de Candolle in 1805 and is called crown vetch.

sedo'ides: resembling genus Sedum.

Se'dum: from the Latin sedo, "to sit," in reference to the manner in which some species attach themselves to stones or walls.The genus Sedum was published by Carl Linnaeus in 1753 and is called stonecrop, orpine and sedum.

sello'ana: named for Friedrich Sello(w) (1789-1831), a German traveller and naturalist who made extensive botanical collections in Brazil and Uruguay, and whose name appears on many South American plants. He was descended from the Prussian court gardening dynasty of the Sello family which had already produced five royal court gardeners including his father Carl Julius Samuel Sello. After his schooling, he worked for two years as an assistant in the Botanical Garden in Berlin which was supervised by the esteemed botanist and professor of natural history Carl Ludwig Willdenow. Willdenow took Sello under his wing and sent him to Paris for further training, encouraging his friend Alexander von Humboldt to arrange a job for him at the Jardin des Plantes. In addition to patrons like Willdenow and von Humboldt, he was assisted greatly in his career by the great British botanist Sir Joseph Banks in London, and Banks helped to finance his first trip to Brazil. Over seventeen years he made extensive collections of plants, seeds, shells, wood samples, insects and minerals in the largely unexplored southern provinces of Brazil and adjacent areas of Argentina and Uruguay, most of which are in the Berlin Museum of Natural History, the Ethnological Museum of Berlin, and the Museum of Natural History in Vienna. He met a premature death at the age of 42 when he drowned while crossing the Rio Doce. The genus Selloa was named in his honor as well as many other taxa.

semidecan'drum: from the Latin semi, "half," and Greek deka, "ten," and andros, "a man or male," alluding to the ten stamina divided into two groups of five, of different shape.

semiserra'tum: the prefix semi- means "half," and serratum means "serrate or saw-toothed." The description of Eupatorium semiserratum mentions that the leaves can be serrate above the middle, so maybe this means that half the leaf is serrate.

semper'virens: evergreen, from Latin semper, “always,” and virēns, “flourishing, living, green."

Sene'cio: from senex, "old man," referring to the gray hairs on the seeds. The genus Senecio was published by Carl Linnaeus in 1753 and is called groundsel or ragwort.

sen'ega: Gledhill says this name is of the American Seneca Indians, and specifically states that Polygonum senega, called Seneca snakeroot, was used to treat rattlesnake bites.

Sen'na: name derives from the Arabic sanā, for plants whose leaves and pods have purgative and laxative properties. The genus Senna was published by Philip Miller in 1754 and is called senna, sicklepod or wild coffee.

sensibi'lis: sensitive, responding quickly to touch, changes in light, etc.

seor'sa: with its own beginning, apart, distinct, different, from Latin seorsus, "sundered, separate, apart."

se'pium: growing in hedges or used for hedges. Carex seorsa is commonly called weak stellate sedge.

septemlo'bus: with seven lobes.

septentriona'lis: northern, belonging to the north.

ser'icans: silky or silky-hairy.

seric'ea: silky. Wikipedia says "The specific name sericea comes from the Latin sericatus meaning "clothed in silken hair" and describes the downy foliage."

Sericocar'pus: from the Greek serikon, "silk or silky," and karpos, "fruit," alluding to the dried fruits which are covered with silky hairs. The genus Sericocarpus is called white-top aster and was published by Christian Nees von Esenbeck in 1832.

seroti'na/seroti'num: late in flowering or ripening, from the Latin serotinus, "that which comes late, that which happens in the evening."

serpentar'ia/serpentar'ius: creeping, serpentine.

serpyllifo'lia: with leaves like those of thyme, Serpyllum.

serra'ta: saw-toothed, sawlike, from Latin serra, "saw."

serrio'la: either in ranks, or pertaining to salad, being one form of an old name seris for chicory.

serrula'ta: minutely serrate.

Sesban'ia: from Arabic sesban or saisabān, an ancient name for one of the species of this genus. The genus Sesbania was published by Michel Adanson in 1763 and is called simply sesbania.

sessiliflor'a/sessiliflor'um: with unstalked or sessile flowers.

sessilifo'lia/sessilifo'lium: with sessile leaves, from the Latin sessilis, "sitting," and folius, "leaf,' meaning the leaf 'sits' directly on the stem without a stalk.

ses'sile/ses'silis: stalkless, sessile.

Sesu'vium: thanks to Umberto Quattrocchi, Jaeger's Source-book of Biological Names and Terms, and various online sources, we have the following: Sesuvium, land of the Sesuvii, a Gallic tribe from west of the Seine. Acording to David Hollombe, Sesuvium was apparently the name given by the Roman physician Aurelius Opilius to Sedum or Sempervivum. I have no idea how this name came to be applied to this genus however. The genus Sesuvium is commonly called sea-purslane and was published by Carl Linnaeus in 1759.

seta'cea/seta'ceum: from the Latin seta, "a bristle," thus meaning bristled.

Seta'ria: from the Latin saeta, "a bristle or hair" in reference to the bristly spikelets. The genus Setaria was published by Ambroise Marie François Joseph Palisot de Beauvois in 1812 and is called bristlegrass or foxtail.

seto'sum: bristly hairy, from the Latin seta, "silk."

Seymer'ia: named for one or the other or both Henry Seymer (name sometimes spelled as Seymour) (1714-1785) and his son Henry Seymer, Jr. (1745-1800), both of whom were British amateur natural historians and artists. Flora of North America attributes the derivation to Henry Sr. They are little known and there is a dearth of information about them, and what there is primarily relates to their collection of natural history specimens of molluscs and insects, mostly butterflies and moths, a collection of the latter that apparently numbered around 20,000, and was obtained through dealers, travellers, military personnel and other contacts, and which came from China, Java, India, West Africa, South Africa, South America, Jamaica, and the early British colonies in North America. Though they did not publish anything themselves, their work was thankfully preserved in a volume entitled The Seymer Legacy: Henry Seymer and Henry Seymer Jr. of Dorset and Their Entomological Paintings with a catalog of Butterflies and Plants (1755-1783) written by Dick Vane-Wright and Harold W.D. Hughes and published in 2005. Almost all the illustrations contained therein had bever before been published nor seen by anyone outside the Seymer family for over 200 years. There seems little question that the father, described in one source as a landowner and lepidopterist, was the more significant of the two, having spent the bulk of his life investigating natural history, in particular entomology, conchology and mineralogy. It has been suggested that his son, though an extremely talented artist, may well have been following his father out of a sense of duty rather than ambition. It is known that he received two law degrees from Oxford and practised at the assize court in Dorchester. The circle of professional contacts that the two Seymers utilized was mainly created by Henry Sr.  A review of The Seymer Legacy written by S. Peter Dance refers to it as "informative, well researched, well written and aesthetically satisfying," and goes on to say: “An unashamedly de luxe production, especially in its hydra-leather-bound collectors’ edition, it is an entomological and bibliographical tour de force. It honours the considerable achievement of two devotees of natural history who, during the second half of the eighteenth century, magnificently but unobtrusively immortalised some of the 20,000 or so butterflies and moths in their collection by portraying many of them in vibrant watercolours. The work of Henry Seymer (1714–1785) and his son, Henry Seymer Junior (1745–1800), the set of original, painted images, covering 72 sheets of paper, has survived intact, in nearly pristine condition, for well over two centuries. The painting techniques of father and son are so similar that the authors often found it difficult or impossible to attribute them unequivocally to one or the other artist. Decoratively arranged plants and their stems form backdrops for all the paintings and the elder Seymer may have been responsible for these, the insect images being added afterwards.” Mark Catesby’s Hortus Europae Americanus: or, A Curious Collection of Trees and Shrubs, which he was working on up until his death, and which was published fourteen years later, contained a dedication to Henry Seymer. Vane-Wright and Hughes summarize by saying “The Seymer paintings, made during the period 1755–1783, appear to have been intended as a virtual record of the collection. If so, it is fortunate they had such foresight. The level of accuracy achieved ranges from good to outstanding. Minute detail is often finely rendered, and the coloring remains authentic in all but a few instances.” Their comment seems especially appropriate because the vast Seymer collection was disposed of by sale shortly after Henry Sr.’s death. The genus Seymeria was published by Frederick Traugott Pursh in 1813 and is simply called seymeria.

Sherar'dia/sherar'dia: named for Dr. William Sherard (1659-1728), an Englist botanist, patron of Dillenius and friend of John Ray, next to whom he was considered to be one of the outstanding English botanists of his day. Sherard was born in Leicestershire, educated at Merchant Taylors’ School in London from 1674-1677, and attended  St John's College, Oxford reading law from 1677 to 1683. Alongside his studies in this area, Sherard took a great interest in botany, often visiting the university's physic garden and striking up a lasting friendship with its keeper, Jacob Bobart the Younger. He collected Oxfordshire plants for Bobart and assisted him with completing Robert Morison's Plantarum Historiae Universalis Oxoniensis. He graduated with a law degree in 1683. He studied botany from 1686 to 1688 at the Jardin du Roi in Paris under Joseph Pitton de Tournefort and afterwards visited the Netherlands, where he met the keeper of the Leiden Botanical Gardens, Paul Hermann. He compiled lists of the plants growing at both the Leiden and Paris gardens, which were published as Schola botanica, Sherard's only book. Returning to England in 1689, Sherard worked on compiling records of the plants of southern England and the Channel Islands. He then went visiting again, this time to County Down, Ireland, where he stayed with Sir Arthur Rawdon, a keen horticulturalist. Enjoying life on Rawdon's estate, he remained three years, during which period he explored Ulster and its flora, adding several new species to scientific knowledge. Sherard finally returned to Oxford in 1694, where he became a Doctor of Civil Law before departing on a grand tour as tutor to Charles, Lord Townshend. He briefly returned to England in 1697 before setting off on another grand tour, this time accompanying the Marquess of Tavistock as tutor. Sherard was able to visit many botanical gardens in Italy on this trip and decided that he would make it his life's work to continue Casper Bauhin's Pinax (1623), updating all the plant names authored by botanists up to that time. Landing back in England before Christmas 1698 with a haul of rare books and herbarium specimens to help him with his set task, Sherard took some persuading to once again be employed as a tutor. His acquaintance, Hans Sloane, had introduced Sherard to the Dowager Duchess of Beaufort, who insisted Sherard tutor her grandson Henry. A keen collector of plants in her garden at Badminton, the Duchess was probably interested in Sherard because of his reputation as a botanist and Sherard duly took up the new post, but it did not last long, for Henry died the following year. Life was to be unsettled for the next two years, during which time Sherard was employed briefly as junior bursar at his Oxford college and then with a government commission to improve care of French and Spanish prisoners. A more attractive position was offered to him as British Consul at Smyrna in Turkish Asia Minor, which he gladly accepted, and he remained there until 1716, finding it difficult to continue his botanical work but financially remunerative, and he eventually left to resume work on his magnum opus (the Pinax) once more. He settled in London in late 1717 and he was soon elected to the Royal Society and joined its council in 1719-1720. During this period he also worked with his brother, James, an apothecary, building up a superb garden at the latter's estate in Eltham. Together they travelled to Europe in 1721 to collect plants and entice the Giessen botanist Johann Jakob Dillenius to come and work with them. While continuing to work on the Pinax, Sherard organised collecting expeditions to North America undertaken by Mark Catesby and Thomas More, and worked with Hermann Boerhaave on the completion of Sébastien Vaillant's Botanicon Perisiense (1727), requiring two visits to the Netherlands. Due to these distractions, the Pinax moved forwards slowly, even with Dillenius' help. In addition Sherard fell out with Hans Sloane, who denied him access to the collections of Petiver and Plukenet, further obstructing matters. The work was never to be completed; by 1728 Sherard (now living with Dillenius on Tower Hill), was suffering from senility and died that year. He had maintained a collection of botanical books, dried plants, fruits and seeds which he bequeathed to Oxford University, of which he was a Fellow. Sherard helped shape the face of taxonomy which at the time was still in flux. His work with Ray, Tournefort, Vaillant, Hermann and Dillenius helped considerably define the work of Linnaeus, the father of modern taxonomy. He contributed to John Ray's Stirpium published in 1694 and co-edited Paul Hermann's Paradisus Batavus (1698) after Hermann's death in 1695. Sherard's major legacy was to endow a new Chair of Botany at Oxford University, to which he also bequeathed his herbarium of 12,000 sheets and his library and paintings. He stipulated that Dillenius was to be the first Sherardian Professor of Botany, though wrangling over the terms of the bequest meant he was not instated for seven years. The unfinished Pinax was also given to Oxford. The genus Sherardia was published by Carl Linnaeus in 1753 and is called field madder.

shortia'na: see shortii.

Short'ia/short'ii: named for Charles Wilkins Short (1794-1863), an American botanist who worked primarily in the state of

Kentucky. He was born in Woodford County, Kentucky, and lived on his father’s farm when young. He attended Transylvania University and received a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1810 and a Master of Arts degree in 1813. He then attended the University of Pennsylvania and became a Doctor of Medicine in 1815. Between 1815 and 1825 he practiced medicine in Woodford County. Between 1825 and 1837, he was a professor of  materia medica and medical botany at Transylvania University and then took the same position in 1837 at the University of Louisville where he helped to establish a medical school,

remaining there until 1849. Upon retiring, the University's Board of Trustees named him Professor Emeritus of Materia Medica and Medical Botany. In 1845 he made a botanical expedition along the Ohio River. Short was considered to be the most well-known botanist west of the Alleghenies during the middle of the 19th century, and he discovered a number of plant species including the Kentucky pearlwort (Stellaria fontinalis), the top-pod water lily (Ludwigia polycarpia), and Carex shortii and Solidago shortii, both named for him. He was the author of A Catalog of the Native Phaenogamous Plants and Ferns of Kentucky written in 1833 which described 1300 species of plants. He also wrote a history of western American botany in 1836. He was elected an Associate Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1855. He co-founded the Transylvania Journal of Medicine and the Associate Sciences and was an associate editor until 1839. He was also the co-author of Plants of Kentucky. He owned a botanical collection with 15,000 plant samples which an 1865 book said was one of the most valuable private herbariums in the world and one of the most complete in the United States. He retired from medical teaching in 1849 and died of pneumonia and typhoid fever in 1863. The genus Shortia in the Diapensiaceae was published by John Torrey and Asa Gray in 1842 and the genus Shortia in the Brassicaceae was published by Constantine Samuel Rafinesque in 1921.

shri'veri: named for Albert Shriver, Jr. (1923-2008), high school biology teacher, football coach and avid botanist. There’s not much on the internet about this person, especially about his connection to botany. I don’t know where he was born, it was probably somewhere in Ohio. He apparently attended and played football at Martins Ferry (Ohio) High School and then at Muskingum College, also in Ohio. Mr. Shriver served with the Navy Seabees, the construction battalion, during World War II. He was a resident of Emsworth, Pennsylvania, was Avonworth High School’s football coach for 18 seasons from 1950 to 1967. During Mr. Shriver's tenure, he coached Eugene "Mercury" Morris, who went on to win Super Bowls as a running back with the NFL's Miami Dolphins. He was only 43 when he retired from coaching. In his final season, an Avonworth player collapsed and died during a preseason practice. "I think he probably would've stayed on longer coaching if that didn't happen," said Cynthia Davis, his daughter. "I remember how upset he was at that." He also taught biology at the same school for 31 years. He died of heart disease at the age of 84.

shumar'dii: named for Benjamin Franklin Shumard (1820-1869), American geologist and physician born at Lancaster.

Pennsylvania. He graduated from Miami University at Oxford, Ohio, took a medical course at Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia, and received his M.D. degree at Louisville, Kentucky, in 1843. He settled in Hodgenville, a small town south of Louisville, and opened an office to begin practice, but soon became became absorbed in natural history and other scientific objects, almost to the exclusion of his profession as a physician. By 1846 he had given up medicine to devote his time to geology. He wrote some papers on the subject, and built a collection of specimens. He headed a section of the geological

survey of Iowa, Wisconsin, and Minnesota in 1848 and 1849 and contributed largely to the value of the reports on the geology of those states. In 1850 accompanied a geological survey to Oregon where he was engaged for eighteen months.  He was next involved with the paleontology of the Red River exploration in connection with Captain R. B. Marcy, and in 1853 was appointed paleontologist and assistant geologist of the Missouri Geological Survey, but in 1858, before that work was finished, he resigned to undertake a geological survey of Texas as chief geologist of Texas under appointment of Governor Hardin R. Runnels. That year he was also President of the Academy of Sciences in St. Louis. With the Civil War coming, he put an end to research in this science for a time and turned his attention to his original profession and opened an office in St. Louis. He was elected professor of obstetrics in the State University in 1866 and lectured for two winters. His health had been declining for several months, so he sought a milder climate. The steamer upon which he took passage for New Orleans caught fire and burned above Vicksburg and he caught pneumonia. He returned to St. Louis immediately but died shortly thereafter at the young age of 49. At the time of his death he was a corresponding member of the Geological Society of London, of the Imperial Geological Society of Vienna, of the Imperial Geological Society of Honnstadt, of the Academies of Science of Philadelphia, California, Cincinnati, New Orleans and many others. He made many valuable contributions to geological literature in magazine articles and in papers read before academies, many of them prepared in the midst of laborious professional duties, all showing his vast amount of knowledge and research. and no doubt would have made many more had he lived to a greater age. (Information from the Texas State Historical Association and an obituary on Find-a-Grave)