Dear Dinesh Sir, Mungo word came into use much before Linnaeus. It was Paul Hermann (1646-1695) who initiated it. So most probably Mungo Park (1771 – 1806) is not the correct person on which the name is based or most probably the name is not based on his nae at all. Paul Hermann worked in Sri Lanka and many of his herbarium specimens were used by Linnaeus in his Species Plantarum (1753) as well as Mantissa plantarum (1761). The hindi word MOONG came first and later came the botanical name.
Secondly, Phaseolus radiata (now known as Vigna radiata) was named earlier (1753) where as Phaseolus mungo (now known as Vigna mungo) was named later in 1767 just because it looked like Mung though it was not... Even at some point in botanical history both were believed to be same....Paseolus mungo var. mungo and P. mungo var. radiatus. Hope this solves your confusion. ......its fun sometimes..... To add to your confusion, you know Urad is often called black lentil, but it is also called as white lentil, though it is black :)))) isnt that funny.... Pankaj
