Sue, Regarding Enc. phoenicea vs. Enc. phoeniceum; you've only got one specific name there.
"Phoeniceus" is an adjective meaning "bright red" or "scarlet". When describing a female noun, the adjective becomes "phoenicea", and when describing a neuter noun, the adjective becomes "phoeniceum". The gender of the adjective has to agree with the associated noun, so whether your species is correctly called E. phoenicea or E.phoeniceum depends on whether "Encyclia" is a female or neuter word. Most people would opt for "Encyclia phoenicea" because the endings match, but this isn't necessarily the case. My Latin dictionary isn't comprehensive enough to allow me to work out the derivation of "Encyclia" ....it appears to be an invented name based on either the Greek adjective "cyclo-" (= circular) or the Greek adjective "cyclus-" (= whorled). Converting Greek words into Latin is tricky because they don't always follow the rules. In order to be 100% correct, you'd have to read the original description of the genus Encyclia, and hope the author has mentioned the etymology ... in other words, said if the newly-coined noun is neuter or female. If the author didn't make the etymology clear, then it is possible that there is no correct answer. Classical-language experts have been arguing for the best part of 100 years if "Aerides" is female or neuter. Some say "Aerides odorata" is correct, others insist it should be "Aerides odoratum". Cheers, Peter O'Byrne _______________________________________________ the OrchidGuide Digest (OGD) [email protected] http://orchidguide.com/mailman/listinfo/orchids_orchidguide.com
