Re: Latin Descriptions

Carl Gustafson (Carl.Gustafson@cbis.ECE.Drexel.EDU)
Wed, 4 Oct 1995 07:32:00 -0400

>A question - Is the use of Latin for species descriptions unique to botany?
>I can't recall seeing any contemporary species descriptions in Latin for
>any of the organisms I work with (bacteria, algae, protozoa, and fungi).

In some of the Orchid literature, I've seen the descriptions in both Latin
and English. The English description is often much more detailed (based on
word count, and attempts to puzzle out the meanings of the Latin). For that
matter, I've also seen them in Latin and Spanish. I think it depends on the
author and possibly the journal.

Carl