BL-BY

                  In the following names, the stressed vowel is the one preceding the stress mark. It is not always
                  easy to ascertain where such stress should be placed, especially in the case of epithets derived
                  from personal names. I have tried to follow the principle of maintaining the stress of the original
                  name as outlined in the Jepson Manual, and have abandoned it only when it was just too awkward.
                  In the case of some names, I have listed them twice, reflecting either some disagreement or conflict
                  in the rules of pronunciation, some uncertainty on my part as to the correct pronunciation, or simply
                  that sometimes there is no single correct pronunciation. In other instances, the way I record it is just
                  that which sounds right to my ear.

• bithy'nica: from Bithynia, a region of northwest Asia Minor (ref. Vicia bithynica)
• blair'ii: after Erwin (or Erve) Grant Blair (1865-1965), sheep rancher in Park County, Montana, before moving to southern California about 1913. He raised sheep on San Clemente Island. "Philip A. Munz, then of Pomona College, made a notable visit to the island from April 8-12, 1923, accompanied by F. W. Peirson, D. D. Keck (at that time a student at Pomona), Dr. J.G. Needham (Munz's professor at Cornell, then on a visit to California), and five others. Dr. Munz obtained Nos. 6600-6789 on the island (including cryptogams), Peirson Nos. 3416-3487; the others apparently did not collect. Nearly all of Munz's (POM) and Peirson's (RSA) collections are cited here. The party landed at Wilson Cove, circled the north end dunes, and the next day set out by wagon for the south, camping near Lemon Tank and then working the canyons on both sides of the island to the vicinity of Middle Ranch and Thirst. They were materially aided in their efforts by Mr. E. G. Blair, in charge of the sheep company operations at the time; he even gathered flowering material of Munzothamnus for them the following autumn."...(from Peter Raven, A Flora of San Clemente Island, 1963) (ref. Munzo-
  thamnus [formerly Stephanomeria] blairii)
• blak'leyi: after Elwood R. "Jim" Blakley, botanist and retired historian, and member of the Santa Cruz Foundation's "All Eight Club" of people who have spent time on all eight Channel Islands, co-author with Karen Barnette in 1985 of "Historical Overview of the Los Padres National Forest" (ref. Chorizanthe blakleyi)
• blanch'eae: after Luella Blanche Engle Trask (Mrs. Walter Jones Trask) (1865-1916), see traskiae (ref. Cercocarpus betuloides var. blancheae)
• blan'dus: charming, mild, not bitter
• blas'dalei/blasdal'ei: after Walter Charles Blasdale (1871-1960). The following is quoted from a 1961 University of California Memorium essay: "Walter Charles Blasdale was born on January 10, 1871, in Jericho, Queens County, New York, the son of Charles Blasdale, M.D., and Julia Smith Blasdale. His scientific education was obtained at the University of California. He matriculated in 1888 and received a B.S. degree in chemistry in 1892, an M.S. degree in 1896, and a Ph.D. degree in 1900. His was the first doctorate in chemistry awarded by the University of California. He started teaching in the College of Chemistry during his graduate studies. He was Assistant in Chemistry from 1892 until 1895, Instructor from 1895 until 1903, Assistant Professor from 1903 until 1911, Associate Professor from 1911 until 1919, and Professor from 1919 until 1941. He became Professor of Chemistry, Emeritus, in 1941 at the age of seventy. The bibliography of his published writings contains contributions to botany as well as chemistry. His first paper, "Studies in the Life History of a Puccinia found on the leaves of Oenothera ovata," was prepared while he was still an undergraduate. It was published in the Report of the Agricultural Experiment Station (California) for 1891-92. Another paper, "On Certain Leaf Hair Structures" appeared in Erythea in December, 1893. Professor Blasdale's first chemical publication, "On the Physical and Chemical Properties of Some California Oils," was printed in the Journal of the American Chemical Society in December, 1895. The bulletins of the Department of Geology, in which Louderback described the new mineral Benitoite and associated minerals (Vol. V, No. 9, 1896; Vol. V, No. 23, 1909), included chemical analyses of these minerals by Professor Blasdale. In July, 1899 he published a bulletin of the Agricultural Experiment Station, Some Chinese Vegetable Food Materials, Their Nutritive and Economic Value. For many years he taught quantitative analysis, and his experience in teaching this subject resulted in the publication, in 1914, of Principles of Quantitative Analysis. The fourth edition of this book was published in 1936 under the title Fundamentals of Quantitative Analysis. During a year's leave from the University in 1904-05, Professor Blasdale developed his knowledge of physical chemistry by studying with the famous Van't Hoff in Berlin. The Sitzungsberichte der Preussischen Akademie der Wissenschaften contains three joint papers by Van't Hoff and Blasdale. Subsequently, he published research papers on "Equilibria in Solutions Containing Mixtures of Salts." This work culminated in publication of a book, Equilibria in Saturated Salt Solutions in 1927, as one of the Chemical Monograph Series of the American Chemical Society. A contribution to the International Critical Tables in 1928, was "Freezing-point Solubility; Data for Three (or more) Component Aqueous Solutions of Salts and Inorganic Compounds." His researches in this field were of value for the utilization of salt deposits found in dried lakes in California and elsewhere. For many years he taught a course in the Phase Rule.
      Professor Blasdale's researches in chemistry were paralleled by his contributions to botany. Many of his publications appeared in the Journal of the California Horticultural Society, the National Horticultural Magazine, and the Quarterly of the American Primrose Society. The botany of the primrose especially received his attention; he studied it through plantings in his garden and greenhouse. His work on the primrose culminated in a major work, The Cultivated Species of Primula, University of California Press, 1948. He also published a work, Cyclamen Persicum; Its Natural and Cultivated Forms, Stanford University Press, 1952. Professor Blasdale's broad interests also included the history of science. He taught a course in the history of chemistry and for many years was an active member of the History of Science Dinner Club of the University of California. Professor Blasdale was a member of the American Chemical Society, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Horticultural Society, the California Horticultural Society, and the Royal Horticultural Society of Great Britain. He was a member of the Faculty Club, Phi Beta Kappa, and Sigma Xi. He was active in the First Congregational Church of Berkeley and in the Boy Scouts. In view of his interest in young people, it was fitting that he should serve on the Academic Senate Committee on Undergraduate Scholarships. He was chairman of that committee from 1930 until 1934. He was active in the California Horticultural Society until about a month before his death; he often attended its meetings in San Francisco. Professor Blasdale was married on June 28, 1905, to Elizabeth Rogers. He died on May 23, 1960, after a seventy-two-year association with the University of California, perhaps the longest on record." (ref. Agrostis blasdalei)
• blattar'ia: from the Latin name blatta for "moth" (ref. Verbascum blattaria)
• Blech'num: from the classical Greek blechnon, a name used by Pliny for a fern or ferns (ref. genus Blechnum)
• Blennosper'ma: means "slimy seed" from the Greek blenna, "mucus, slime, phlegm" and sperma, "seed" (ref. genus Blennosperma)
• Blepharidach'ne: from the Greek blepharon, "eyelid or eyelash," and achne, "chaff, glume," referring to the ciliate lemmas (ref. genus Blepharidachne)
• Blepharipap'pus: from the Greek words meaning "eyelash pappus" (ref. genus Blepharipappus)
• Blepharizonia: from the Greek blepharis, "eyelash," and zone, "a belt, armor or girdle," referring to the fruits which are weakly held by the phyllaries (ref. genus Blepharizonia)
• blepharophyl'la: with leaves like genus Blepharis, from the Greek blepharon, "eyelash" (ref. Arabis blepharophylla)
• blissia'num: after Anna Dorinda Blaksley (Mrs. Demas Barnes, Mrs. William Henry Bliss) (1851-1935) and her daughter Mildred Barnes (Mrs. Robert Woods Bliss) (1879-1969). The following is quoted from a website of Harvard University Library: "Robert Woods Bliss [1875-1962] was a graduate of Harvard College, Class of 1900. He began work as the Secretary to the Governor of Puerto Rico and entered the U.S. Foreign Service in 1903 with a post in Venice. For the next thirty years he served the diplomatic corps in St. Petersburg, Brussels, Buenos Aires, Paris, Washington, D.C., and Stockholm. He retired in 1933, but returned to the State Department for occasional special service. Robert Woods Bliss married his stepsister, Mildred Barnes, in 1908. They had no children. She was a well-educated and well-travelled heir to the Castoria patent medicine fortune. Mildred Bliss was an active participant and leader in social and cultural circles at every diplomatic post to which Robert Bliss was assigned. She was an avid art collector as well as patron of musicians and visual artists in Europe, South America and the United States. She organized the American Distributing Service to transfer medical supplies to French hospitals and funded several vehicles for the Ambulance Corps. She was honored with numerous decorations for her war relief efforts in France during World War I. In addition to extensive philanthropic work, the Blisses were recognized as important art collectors. In 1920 they purchased an estate in Georgetown called "The Oaks." They renamed it "Dumbarton Oaks" and spent the next several decades involved with the development of both the exterior landscape and the art and book collections within. In 1940 Mildred and Robert Woods Bliss conveyed Dumbarton Oaks to Harvard University as the Center for Byzantine Studies. The Blisses resided nearby and maintained an active interest in the formation and funding of its garden, library, art collection and musical program. Plans to build a gallery at Dumbarton Oaks to house Robert Bliss's collection of pre-Columbian art were underway when he died of lung cancer on April 19, 1962. The Robert Woods Bliss Collection of Pre-Columbian Art was opened to the public in 1963. Mildred Bliss continued to travel and take part in Washington's cultural life and philanthropy life until her death on January 17, 1969." Demas Barnes (1827-1888) was the first husband of Anna Dorinda Blaksley and the father of Mildred Barnes. William Henry Bliss (1844-1932) was the second husband of Anna Dorinda Blaksley and the father of Robert Woods Bliss (with his first wife Anna Louisa Woods), so Mildred Barnes and Robert Woods Bliss were actually step-siblings (ref. Eriogonum X blissianum)
• blito'ides: resembling blitum, an old name for strawberry blite, a course weed with a red fruit (ref. Alternanthera blitoides, Amaranthus blitoides, Aphanisma blitoides)
• blochman'iae: after Ida May Twitchell Blochman (1854-1931), born in Maine, came to La Graciosa, California (an old community now within the city limits of Orcutt, south of Santa Maria), a schoolteacher who collected plants in the Santa Maria Valley of the Santa Barbara region, mainly in the 1890's. In 1893 she sent a large collection of plants to the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, and she corresponded with Alice Eastwood and Edward Lee Greene. Several endemics bear her name, although most are Central Coast plants (ref. Dudleya blochmaniae, Erigeron blochmaniae, Senecio blochmaniae)
• bloom'eri/Bloomer'ia: named for Dr. Hiram Green Bloomer (1819-1874), an early San Francisco botanist and one of the founders of the California Academy of Sciences (ref. genus Bloomeria, also Ericameria bloomeri)
• boar'ia: the Dave's Garden Botanary site gives "of cattle" as the meaning of this name (ref. Maytenus boaria)
• boccon'ei: after Paolo Boccone (1633-1703), an Italian monk and physician (ref. Spergularia bocconei)
• bodien'sis: from the Bodie Hills in the eastern Sierra Nevadas (ref. Arabis bodiensis)
• Boech'era: after Tyge Wittrock Boecher (1909-1983), born in Copenhagen, an authority on Arctic vegetation and the flora of Greenland, also worked in Argentina (ref. genus Boechera)
• Boehmer'ia: after Georg(e) Rudolf Boehmer (1723-1803) of Saxony, professor of botany and anatomy at the University of Wittenberg (ref. genus Boehmeria)
• Boerhav'ia: sometimes spelled Boerhaavia, after Hermann Boerhaave (1668-1738), a Dutch botanist (ref. genus Boerhavia)
• Boisduval'ia: a genus now placed in Epilobium, but originally named after Jean Alphonse Boisduval (1801-1879), a French naturalist and physician (ref. former genus Boisduvalia)
• boland'eri: named after Henry Nicholson Bolander (1831-1897), a collector of plants in Yosemite National Park and California State Botanist in 1864. The following is quoted from a website of the Harvard University Herbaria: "Henry Nicholas Bolander was born in Schleuchtern, Germany and emigrated to the United States in 1846, at the age of 15. At the encouragement of his uncle, he entered the Lutheran Seminary in Columbus, Ohio. Bolander completed this course of study and was ordained but never became a minister. In 1851 he began teaching in the German-English schools. During this time he was introduced to the study of plants by his neighbor, Leo Lesquereux, a paleobotanist and bryologist. Bolander suffered ill health for a number of years, prompting his physician recommended a change of climate. Based on this advice, Bolander decided in 1861 to move to California, where he became acquainted with many members of the California Academy of Sciences and the State Geological Survey. In 1864 he succeeded W. H. Brewer as the State Botanist of California and began making collections for the Survey. Bolander collected cryptogams and flowering plants, and became a specialist on grasses. He would continue this connection with the State Geological Survey until it was discontinued. His published works include A Catalogue of Plants Growing in the Vicinity of San Francisco (1870), as well as papers on California grasses that were published in the Proceedings of the California Academy of Sciences. In 1871, Bolander's career took a turn away from botany and back towards his previous vocation, education. He was elected as of State Superintendent of Schools, an office which he held until December 1875. He was also the editor of a monthly magazine, California Teacher. In 1878 Bolander left California and traveled for several years. It is known that he went Guatemala, Chile and Peru; it is likely that he was also in South Africa, Madagascar and Europe. Bolander returned to the Pacific Coast in 1883 and settled in Portland, Oregon. He once again returned to education, teaching modern languages and botany in St. Helen's Hall and Bishop Scott Academy until his death in 1897." (ref. Astragalus bolanderi, Calamagrostis bolanderi, Carex bolanderi, Cinna bolanderi, Galium bolanderi, Horkelia bolanderi, Lithophragma bolanderi, Madia bolanderi, Mimulus bolanderi, Poa bolanderi, Scribneria bolanderi, Scutellaria bolanderi)
• Bolan'dra: see previous entry (ref. genus Bolandra)
• Bolboschoen'us: from the Greek bolbos, "a bulb, onion," and the related genus Schoenus (ref. genus Bolboschoenus)
• bonarien'sis: of or from Buenos Aires (ref. Conyza bonariensis)
• bo'nus: good
• booth'ii: after William Beattie Booth (1804-1874), close friend and countryman of Scottish collector David Douglas (ref. Camissonia boothii ssp. condensata, Camissonia boothii ssp. desertorum, Camissonia boothii ssp. intermedia)
• Bora'go: an ancient name of uncertain origin, possibly from the Latin burra, "a hairy garment," alluding to the hairy leaves. This is the name that gives the family Boraginaceae its name (ref. genus Borago)
• borea'le/borea'lis: northern (ref. Glyceria borealis, Linaea borealis, Microseris borealis, Wolffia borealis)
• borea'li-atlan'tica: of or from the northern Atlantic region (ref. Elytrigia juncea ssp. boreali-atlantica)
• borregan'us: of or from the Borrego area (ref. Astragalus lentiginosus var. borreganus)
• borregoen'se: see previous entry (ref. Galium angustifolium ssp. borregoense)
• Boschniak'ia: after a Russian botanist named Alexander Karlovich Boschniak (1786-1831) (ref. genus Boschniakia)
• Bothriochlo'a: from the Greek bothros, "a pit or hole," and chloe or chloa, "grass" (ref. genus Bothriochloa)
• Botry'chium: from the Greek botrys, "a bunch of grapes," alluding to the bunchlike appearance of the spore-bearing organs of these ferns (ref. genus Botrychium)
• botryo'ides: resembling a cluster of grapes (ref. Muscari botryoides)
• bo'trys: a cluster of grapes (ref. Chenopodium botrys, Erodium botrys)
• bot'tae: after the variously named Paulo Emilio Botta or Paul-Émile Botta (1802-1870), Italian/French diplomat and archeologist, about whom the ever dependable David Hollombe provides the following information: "Born at Turin, raised at Paris. Surgeon and naturalist on French trading ship, Heros (in California 1827-1828). From 1830-1869, army physician, explorer and consul in the Middle East, where he discovered the ruins of the Assyrian capital, Ninevah, in 1843." Actually, while he believed he was excavating Ninevah, he was in reality uncovering the great palace of the Assyrian King Sargon II, who ruled from 721 to 705BC, at Khorsabad, 15 miles to the north of Ninevah, which was the Assyrian capital until Sargon's death and the rise to power of his son Sennacherib, who moved the capital to Ninevah. In 1830, Botta was the personal physician to Mohammed Ali Pashi of Egypt, in 1833 the French consul in Alexandria, and in 1840 became a Consular agent in Iraq where in 1842 he began the excavations at Khorsabad. During his visit to California he collected the type specimen of Charina bottae, the southern rubber boa, and also sent the first specimen of the road runner to France. He was among the first Italians to visit Hawaii, where he spent two months in 1828, and his experiences and observations were included by his father Carlo Botta in his book entitled Viaggio Interno al Globo principalmente alla California ed alle Isole Sandwich. He wrote his own book Observations on the Inhabitants of California 1827-1828, and his name was also given to the pocket gopher, Thomomys bottae, and to Euphorbia bottae. Botta wrote Monument de Nineve in 1849-1850, which consisted of one volume of text and four volumes of illustrations by the artist E.N. Flandin. Botta became a scholar of cuneiform, and was consul in Jerusalem in 1846 and in Syria in 1868. (ref. Clarkia bottae)
• bouchon'ii: after a French botanist or plant collector named A. Bouchon, about whom I have no information at the present time except that he apparently was an assistant at the Botanical Garden of Bordeaux and collected the type specimen in Bordeaux in 1925 (ref. Amaranthus powellii ssp. bouchonii)
• Bougainvil'lea: named in honor of the noted mathematician, scientist, lawyer, soldier, author and Fellow of the Royal Society of London, Louis Antoine de Bougainville (1729-1811), who from 1767 to 1769 sailed around the world. Several South Pacific place names commemorate him, such as a reef in the Coral Sea, an island near Papua New Guinea that was important in WWII, a strait in the Solomon Islands, and a cape in western Australia. It was in the early stages of his trip around the world that he met with his supply ship in Rio de Janeiro, and learned that a botanist named Commerson on that ship had discovered a shrubby climbing plant which he named in honor of the captain. He was the first Frenchman to sail around the world, made important astronomical observations whhich contributed to later navigational charts, was appointed secretary to Louis XV, served as commodore of a French fleet off the coast of North America supporting the American Revolution, escaped the massacres of Paris in 1792, and was made a Senator, Count and member of the Legion of Honor by Napolean (ref. genus Bougainvillea)
• bourgeauan'um: after Eugene Bourgeau (1813-1877), a French botanist. "Eugene Bourgeau was the botanist on the Palliser Expedition [1857-1860], his career having begun with his love of flowers in the French Alps where he tended his father's herds. Sir William Hooker, the first Director of Kew Gardens in London, had received many specimens from distant lands through Bourgeau's work. He referred to Eugene Bourgeau as a 'prince of botanical collectors,' and recommended him to those who were organizing the expedition. Bourgeau was not a disappointment. During his time with the Expedition he collected specimens from eight hundred and nineteen species as well as a great quantity of seeds. John Palliser wrote that, 'Little Bourgeau is a brick, his collections seem to me very pretty an the colours as vivid after the specimens are saved as they are in life. He is most indefatigable and always at work.' As a horseman however, Palliser described him as, 'shocking' and Bourgeau travelled most of the journey across the prairies riding in a Red River cart. Bourgeau accompanied James Hector up the Bow Valley as far as Cascade Mountain. When Bourgeau left the expedition in 1859 to fulfill a previous commitment to do botanical work in London and in the Caucasus in Europe, he had obviously made an impression with Palliser and other members of the expedition. Palliser wrote that Bourgeau was, 'always hard at his work in which his whole soul seems engrossed, and no matter what his fatigues or privations may be, his botanical specimens are always his first care. We were very sorry indeed to lose our friend, who was a great favourite with us all. In addition to his acquirements as a botanist, he united the most sociable, jovial disposition, ever ready not only to do his own work, but assist anyone else who asked him.'" (Quoted from an interesting website called Peakfinder.com, which provides information on the peaks of the Canadian Rockies) (ref. Lepidium ramosissimum var. bourgeauanum)
• Boutelou'a: named after the brothers Claudio (1774-1842) and Estéban (1776-1813) Boutelou, Spanish botanists and horticulturists. Claudio was a professor of agriculture in Madrid and Esteban was possibly also (ref. genus Bouteloua)
• Bowles'ia: after William Bowles (1705-1780), an Irish naturalist, traveller, and author of Introduccion a la historia natural, y a la geografía física de España published at Madrid, 1775. "William Bowles was born near Cork in 1720 (some references state 1705). Little is known about his early life. He studied law in London and then went to Paris (1740) where he studied natural history, chemistry, metallurgy and astronomy. He subsequently travelled through France and Germany studying natural history and mineral and other productions. In 1752, having become acquainted with Don Antonio de Ulloa (1716-1795), afterwards Admiral of the Spanish Fleet, Bowles was inducted to superintend the Spanish State mines, form a natural history collection and establish a chemical laboratory to study platinum and its alloys. One of his early successes was to visit the Almaden [e has accent] mercury mines that had been damaged by fire, and the plans he proposed were successfully adopted for their resuscitation. Also, Bowles’s research on platinum caused him to refute the ideas current at the time that platinum was merely an alloy of iron and gold. Afterwards Bowles travelled extensively in Spain, observing the flora and fauna, and commenting on the inhabitants and their customs as well as collecting information on the mineral deposits of Spain. His society was much valued in the ‘best’ Spanish circles. Bowles’s principal work, An Introduction to the Natural History and Physical geography of Spain, was published in Spanish in Madrid in 1775. This book has considerable value, being the first work of its kind. Bowles had difficulty learning Spanish and enlisted the help of friends to translate important documents. Don J.N. de Azara (Spanish ambassador at Rome) helped him in preparing the first edition of his book. It was later translated into several languages [although apparently not into English]. In his work Bowles observed the geology, flora and fauna of Spain and collected mineral and biological specimens. He described the action of the sea on the coastline and made notes on springs and groundwater and the extinct Spanish volcanoes. Because of his familiarity with German geological thinking and with the geology of France and the Alps he appreciated the idea of geological uniformity and could put Spanish formations into context. Specific references to Ireland in the book include the assertion that the potato came to Ireland from Galicia (NW Spain), and a comment on the success of importing Irish Wolfhounds to Spain in keeping down the Spanish wolf population. Ulluoa convinced King Ferdinand VI in 1752 of the need to establish a Council of Natural History to consolidate the teaching of mineralogy, botany and zoology. The Museum of Natural History was founded in Madrid in 1753 with Ulluoa as Director and Bowles as principal scientist. Bowles introduced the heather Daboecia Cantabrica, previously found in NW Spain and Ireland, to England. Also a genus of plant from Peru related to the carrot, Bowlesia, was named after him. Bowles married a German woman Anna Rustein and she accompanied him frequently on his travels around Spain as they were very devoted to each other. They moved house so many times that, to avoid putting their furniture in storage, they sold it each time a long trip was planned. Anna was pensioned by the King of Spain after her husband’s death in 1780. Although Bowles had an initial bad reaction to Spain, declaring that "All Spain was stupid, lethargic, poor, dirty, jealous and melancholy," he quickly changed his mind and, as already described, became well accepted in Spanish society. He observed and commented on the similarity between Spanish and Irish people. In particular he observed the peasants of Vizcaya in the Basque region noting their love of fairs and dancing, resembling Irish celebrations of feast-days of Patron Saints. He described the tradition of ‘fist-fights’ at these fairs in both countries and noted that serious injury was seldom sustained. He compared the ‘Sheebeens’ of Ireland with the ‘Chacoli’ of Vizcaya, both venues for drinking illicit liquor. He decided that the women of Ireland and of Vizcaya greatly resembled each other and asserted that "the Irish have always professed a great love for the Spanish nation." William Bowles died on August 25, 1780 in Madrid and is buried in the Church of San Martin. He made a remarkable contribution to science in general and to Spanish science in particular. Not only was he a fine scientist, but he was generally a fine fellow, described by his contemporaries as tall and fine-looking, generous, honourable, active, ingenious and well-informed." This entry is quoted from an online article entitled "William Bowles, Unrecognized Irish-Born Scientist," by William Reville, University College, Cork, which first appeared in The Irish Time, May 17, 2001, and is based almost entirely on a history of the life and work of William Bowles compiled by George Reynolds, a winner of the Aer Lingus Young Scientist competition in 1968 (ref. genus Bowlesia)
• Boykin'ia: after Dr. Samuel Boykin (1786-1848), an eminent field botanist born in South Carolina who did the majority of his collecting in Georgia. He was one of the many collectors who sent significant numbers of plant samples to John Torrey and Asa Gray (ref. genus Boykinia)
• brachia'tus: branched at right angles (ref. Streptanthus brachiatus)
• brachy-: a prefix indicating the characteristic of being short, same as brevi-
• brachyan'therum: with short anthers (ref. Hordeum brachyantherum ssp. californicum)
• brachyan'thum/brachyan'thus: short-flowered (ref. Eriogonum brachyanthum, Penstemon procerus var. brachyanthus)
• brachyca'lyx: having a short calyx (ref. Lewisia brachycalyx)
• brachycar'pum: having short fruit (ref. Epilobium brachycarpum, Erodium brachycarpum)
• brachycer'as: short-horned
• brachychae'tum: from brachys, "short," and chaeta, "a bristle" (ref. Achnatherum brachychaetum)
• brachycla'da: short-jointed or short-branched
• brachylep'is: with short scales (ref. Ericameria brachylepis)
• brachylo'ba/brachylo'bus: short-lobed (ref. Orobanche parishii ssp. brachyloba, Phacelia brachyloba)
• brachyphyl'la: short-leaved (ref. Baccharis brachyphylla, Festuca brachyphylla)
• brachypo'da/brachypo'dum: from the Greek brachys, "short," and podion, "a little foot," thus meaning "short-footed" in reference to the pedicels of the spikelets (ref. Osmorhiza brachypoda, Eriogonum brachypodum)
• Brachypo'dium: see brachypoda/brachypodum above (ref. genus Brachypodium)
• brachyp'tera: short-winged
• brachysper'ma: short-seeded (ref. Elatine brachysperma)
• brachysta'chys: with a short spike (ref. Phalaris brachystachys)
• brachyste'mon: with short stamens (ref. Plectritis brachystemon)
• bractea'ta/bractea'tus: bearing bracts (ref. Gutierrezia bracteata, Verbena bracteata, Plagiobothrys bracteatus)
• bracteo'sum/bracteo'sus: with well-developed or conspicuous bracts (ref. Grindelia camporum var. bracteosum, Orthocarpus bracteosus)
• brain'erdii: after Vermont botanist Ezra Brainerd (1844-1925), President of Middlebury College, graduated theological school at Middlebury, taught in English and rhetoric, physics and mathematics departments, distinguished himself as a plant systematist specializing in the difficult genera Crateagus, Viola, and Rubus, wrote a memorium for C.C. Pringle in Rhodora, father of Viola Brainerd Baird, author of Wild Violets of North America, published in 1942 (ref. Carex brainerd)
• Brande'gea/brande'geae/brande'geana: named for Townsend Stith Brandegee (1843-1925), a pioneer western botanist who collected throughout California, Baja and western Nevada. After the Civil War, Townsend studied at Yale with Professor William Brewer, just back from a survey expedition to California. During a period of railroad construction as a civil engineer in Colorado and New Mexico, he developed an interest in botany and was recommended for a post with the U.S. Geographical and Geological Survey by Professor Asa Gray. He gradually moved farther west, collecting in California and Baja, and eventually marrying Mary Katherine Layne Curran, who was curator of botany for the California Academy of Sciences. For a honeymoon, they walked and botanized from San Diego to San Francisco. They founded a botanical journal, and donated their large botanical library and specimen collection to UC Berkeley (ref. genus Brandegea and species Clarkia biloba ssp. brandegeae, Justicia brandegeana)
• brande'geei: see Brandegea above (ref. Fritillaria brandegeei, Salvia brandegeei)
• Brasen'ia: Umberto Quattrocchi says: "Derivation obscure, apparently from the plant's name in Guiana." Most references indicate derivation obscure. Rafinesque in 1828 said, "from a German botanist, Brasen.," with no further details. However, James S. Pringle in a 1995 article in Sida, Contributions to Botany ("Possible Eponomy of the Generic Name Brasenia") suggests that there is good circumstantial evidence that the name does honor Christoph Brasen (1738-1774), a Danish surgeon and leader of the 1771 missionary expedition that established the Moravian mission of Nain on the coast of Labrador the purpose of which was to convert the Inuit residents there to Christianity, and served as its first superintendent. He died in 1774 when on the return trip a storm struck the exploratory voyage he was undertaking to explore the northern Labrador coast and establish a second mission post. The genus was named by Johann Christian Daniel von Schreber who was a professor of natural history and director of the botanical garden at Erlangen, Bavaria. He was familiar with the Moravians and frequently received collected plant specimens from them. Brasen is known to have collected botanical specimens in Labrador and had developed a reputation for being "knowledgeable in botany." Although no direct provable link has been uncovered between Brasen and von Schreber, it is highly likely that upon hearing of the former's death, the suggestion was made that an honorific name be granted to some taxon on his behalf (ref. genus Brasenia)
• brasilien'sis: of or from Brazil (ref. Wolffia brasiliensis)
• Bras'sica: a Latin name for "cabbage" (ref. genus Brassica)
• braun'ii: after Professor of botany Alexander Karl Heinrich Braun (1805-1877). The following is quoted from the Encyclopedia Britannica online: Braun was "chief botanist of the “nature philosophy” school, a doctrine attempting to explain natural phenomena in terms of the speculative theories that dominated early 19th-century German science. Despite his lifelong adherence to vitalistic principles, Braun added important qualifications to the cell theory—i.e., the concept of the cell as the basic unit of life. He also did much to elucidate the sex cycles of primitive plants. Collaborating with the German biologist Karl Schimper, he attempted to establish an idealized plant model based on their observation that the arrangement of leaves on the plant stem (phyllotaxy) in many cases describes a spiral pattern according to fixed geometric rules. Braun taught botany and zoology at the Karlsruhe Polytechnic School (1833–46) and was professor of botany at the University of Freiburg, Breisgau (1846–50), before holding the same position and serving as director of the botanical garden at the University of Berlin (1851–77). He devoted much of his career to the study of cryptogams (non-seed-bearing plants), which led him to his theoretical system of plant structure expounded in Betrachtungen über die Erscheinung der Verjüngung in der Natur . . . (1851; “Observations on the Appearance of Rejuvenation in Nature . . .”). While he argued against the inductive reasoning characteristic of empirical research, his work encouraged the systematic study of plant morphology; his recognition of the basic unity of organisms in form and function by defining the cell in terms of cytoplasm enveloped by a flexible membrane constitutes perhaps his most important contribution." He was the brother-in-law of Louis Agassiz (ref. Equisetum telmateia ssp. braunii)
• braunton'ii: after Ernest Braunton (1867-1954), a landscape architect who introduced the selling of macadamia nut seedling trees into California. He became associated in the nursery business with W.S. Lyon, and in 1915 published The Garden Beautiful in California: A Practical Manual for All Who Garden (ref. Astragalus brauntonii)
• Brayulin'ea: a composite name given in honor of two students of the family Amaranthaceae in North America, William L. Bray (1865-1953) and Edwin Burton Uline (1867-1933) (ref. genus Brayulinea)
• brecciar'um: I have been unable so far to get a certain meaning of this name. I am assuming that it has some relation to the words "breccia" (a rock consisting of sharp fragments embedded in a fine-grained matrix such as sand or clay) and/or "brecciate" (to form or break rock into breccia or fragments), and it may be a reference to the type of soil that a species having this name prefers or was found in. Argus gilia does grow in sandy places, and my indefatigable source David Hollombe contributes that the man responsible for naming that species (Jones) did have an interest in geology and gave the name 'brecciarum' to at least one other species. He also wrote geological and mining articles for "Mining Review" in 1900-1903. The type specimen of Gilia brecciarum was collected in Contact, Nevada where there are still a few families living and acting as caretakers for the town (ref. Gilia brecciarum)
• breed'lovei/breedlov'ei: after Dennis Eugene Breedlove (1939- ), who did his graduate work at Stanford and in addition to doing valuable work in Kern County and the Piute Mountain region, was a collector of plants and did extensive work in ethnobotany in the Chiapas region of Mexico, and is a curator in the Department of Botany for the California Academy of Sciences. He was co-author with Peter Raven of Principles of Tzeltal Plant Classification: An Introduction to the Botanical Ethnography of a Mayan-Speaking People of Highland Chiapas (1974) and with Robert Laughlin of The Flowering of Man: A Tzotzil Botany of Zinacantán (2000). He also authored in 1981 Introduction to the Flora of Chiapas (ref. Eriogonum breedlovei)
• brevi-: a prefix indicating the characteristic of being short, same as brachy-
• breviala'tus: short-winged (ref. Lotus scoparius var. brevialatus)
• brevibractea'tus: short-bracted (ref. Zigadenus brevibracteatus)
• brevicarina'ta: with a short keel (ref. Collinsia torreyi var. brevicarinata)
• brevicau'lis: short-stemmed (ref. Lupinus brevicaulis)
• brevicor'nu: short-horned (ref. Chorizanthe brevicornu)
• brevi'cula/brevi'culus: from the root word for "short" and the diminutive -cula, "little," thus "somewhat short" (ref. Hackelia brevicula, Linanthus breviculus)
• brevicul'mis: short-stemmed (ref. Festuca brachyphylla ssp. breviculmis)
• bre'videns: short-toothed (ref. Astragalus canadensis var. brevidens)
• breviflor'a/breviflor'um: short-flowered (ref. Cuscuta californica var. breviflora, Keckiella breviflora, Mohavea breviflora, Androstephium breviflorum)
• brevifo'lia/brevifo'lius: with short leaves (ref. Amsonia brevifolia, Hulsea brevifolia, Imperata brevifolia, Yucca brevifolia, Scleropogon brevifolius, Elymus elymoides ssp. brevifolius)
• brevilo'ba: short-lobed
• breviloba'ta: same as previous entry (ref. Castilleja hispida ssp. brevilobata)
• bre'vior: shorter ("more short") (ref. Lupinus brevior)
• bre'vipes/brevi'pes: with a short stalk (ref. Camissonia brevipes, Carex brevipes, Cleomella brevipes, Lycium brevipes, Mimulus brevipes)
• breviros'tra/breviros'tris: short-beaked (ref. Sagittaria brevirostra)
  
• brevisca'pus: with a short scape or stem
• brevis'simus: very short (ref. Psilocarphus brevissimus)
• brevistamin'ea: with short stamens (ref. Heuchera brevistaminea)
• brevisty'lis: with a short style
• brevisty'la/brevisty'lum: with a short style (ref. Castilleja brevistyla, Cirsium brevistylum, Epilobium brevistylum)
• brevivex'illus: related to the root word vexillaris, "having a standard or banner, as in the large petal of a pea flower," thus with brevi- or "short" meaning short-bannered (ref. Lotus salsuginosus var. brevivexillus)
  
• brew'eri: in honor of William Henry Brewer (1828-1910), an American botanist and professor. "William H. Brewer was the first Chair of Agriculture at the Sheffield Scientific School at Yale University and a botanical explorer of California and the Pacific Coast.  He was Principal Assistant in charge of botany on the pioneering Geological Survey of California, 1860-1864.  His recommendations about Alaska led to its purchase by the United States in 1867.  Brewer was born on a farm at Poughkeepsie, New York on September 14, 1828.  Shortly thereafter the family moved to Enfield, near Ithaca, New York.  In 1848 Brewer entered Yale University to study agricultural chemistry under Professors Benjamin Silliman, Jr. and John Pitkin Norton. At Yale he was one of the first members of the Berzelius Society.  After two years at Yale, Brewer returned to Enfield and began his teaching career at Ithaca Academy.  In 1852 he returned to Yale where he received a Bachelor of Philosophy degree from the Sheffield Scientific School.  Among this first graduating class were George J. Brush and William P. Blake.  From 1852 to 1855 he taught at the Ovid Academy in Ovid, New York.  In 1855 he traveled to Heidelberg, where he studied natural sciences under Professor Bunsen, and also travelled to Munich where he studied under Professor Liebig.  In the summer of 1856, he undertook a 600 mile botanical exploration of Switzerland.  Before returning to Ovid in 1857, he attended Chevreul's lectures on chemistry in Paris.  In 1858, he was appointed Professor of Chemistry at Washington College (now Washington and Jefferson College) at Washington, Pa.  That year he married his first wife, Angelina Jameson.  In 1860, after the deaths of his wife and newborn son, Brewer was invited to participate in the Geological Survey of California, directed by Josiah Dwight Whitney.  This survey would set the standards for all future geological surveys undertaken in the United States.  His primary task was leading field parties and maintaining records of botanical collections. [Particularly interested in alpine flora, he collected 1368 specimens for the University of California and the Jepson Herbarium. The journal of his explorations was entitled Up and Down California in 1860-1864]  Classifications were not undertaken until after the survey was completed.  Although no longer employed by the survey, Brewer brought his specimens to Harvard where he was advised by Asa Gray on their determinations.  The first volume of the botany portion of the Geological Survey of California [called The Botany of California] was not published until 1876.  The second volume appeared in 1880 under the authorship of Sereno Watson (1826-1892).  [During 1863-1864 he was Professor of Chemistry at the University of California.]  In 1864, Brewer left the California survey to occupy the Chair of Agriculture in the Sheffield Scientific School at Yale.  He remained at this post until 1903, retiring as professor emeritus. He was active in Connecticut government, establishing agricultural experiment stations and organizing the Connecticut and New Haven Boards of Health.  He was a special agent in the 1880 census, reporting on the production of cereals in the U.S. and he chaired the committee appointed by the National Academy of Sciences [to which he had been elected in 1880] in 1903 to make recommendations for a scientific survey of the Philippine Islands.  Other botanical explorations he participated included: the Rocky Mountains of Colorado (1869); Greenland (1894); and the Harriman Alaska Expedition (1899).  He was awarded an honorary degree by the University of California in 1910.  A diarist and letter writer, his writings are preserved in the History of Technology Collection at the University of California, Berkeley archives.  They were most recently edited by Frances P. Farquhar in 1966.  Brewer had remarried in 1868 to Georgiana Robinson at Exeter, New Hampshire.  They had four children: Nora, Henry, Arthur, and Carl. William H. Brewer died at New Haven in 1910."  (Extracted from a website of the New York Botanical Garden) (ref. Arabis breweri, Calamagrostis breweri, Calandrinia breweri, Cardamine breweri, Castilleja breweri, Chrysopsis breweri, Draba breweri, Erigeron breweri var. breweri, Erigeron breweri var. jacinteus, Lupinus breweri var. grandiflorus, Mimulus breweri, Monardella breweri, Navarretia breweri, Pellaea breweri, Phyllodoce breweri, Senecio breweri)
• brew'eriana/breweria'na: see breweri above
• Brickel'lia: named for Dr. John Brickell (1749-1809), early naturalist and physician of Georgia who came to the U.S. in 1770 from Ireland. The genus Brickellia was named for him by Stephen Elliott (1771-1830), a professor of botany in Georgia. This Brickell is not to be confused with another John Brickell (1710?-1745) from Ireland who came to the United States around 1729, was coincidentally also a naturalist and physician, and wrote The Natural History of North Carolina, published in Dublin in 1737, and Catalogue of American Trees and Plants which will Bear the Climate of England, published in London in 1739 (ref. genus Brickellia)
• brickellio'ides: bearing a likeness to the genus Brickellia (ref. Aster brickellioides, Hazardia [formerly Haplopappus] brickellioides)
• bridg'esii: named after English botanist and plant collector Thomas Bridges (1807-1865) who in 1858 wrote to William J. Hooker: "I can scarcely describe to you how pleasing and gratifying it has been to me to learn that in my collections you have found some new and rare plants--I was partially under the impression that from the labours of Douglas, Hartweg, Jeffrey, Lobb and other travelers from Europe with the many United States Exploring Expeditions that little or nothing remained to be discovered and only gleanings were left to those of us of the present day." David Hollombe sent me the following from San Francisco as a Mecca for Nineteenth Century Naturalists by Joseph Ewan: "Thomas Bridges, British naturalist and horticultural collector, a Fellow of the Linnaean and Zoological societies of London, had been in south America before coming to San Francisco in November, 1856. There is substantial evidence that he was an enthusiastic collector and he proved to be California's first resident ornithologist. One obituary noted that 'few, if any more useful lives have passed away as martyrs to science during the present century.' Bridges' principal field of collecting was the Sierra Nevada. There he collected seventy-five bulbs of the lily, Lilium washingtonianum, for his English employer but the steamer Central America, which carried them, was lost at sea. He wrote W. J. Hooker that he was going to make an effort to replace them. Evidently visited the Academy often, and in 1858 he wrote Hooker of his pleasure at finding [The Botany of] Beechey's Voyage [a work by Hooker], Torrey's works, and other works in the Academy's library. He lived in 'Chinese House' on Eleventh Street between Market and Madison streets, and may have associated with William Lobb, then a resident of the city, but of that friendship we have no hint. One of Bridges' most profitable trips was to the mining town of Silver Mountain on the east slope of the Sierra Nevada near Ebbets Pass in 1863. There he met William H. Brewer and Brewer wrote: 'It was a relief to meet Mr. Bridges, an old rambler and botanical collector, well known to all botanists... It was a relief to meet him and talk botany; yet, even he is affected--he has dropped botany and is here speculating in mines. 'Mining fever' is a terrible epidemic; when it is really in a community, lucky is the man who is not affected by it. Yet a few become immensely rich.' In April, 1865, Bridges set out on a collecting trip to Nicaragua but was stricken with malaria and died at sea, September 9, 1865, en route back to San Francisco on the steamer Moses Taylor. Captain Blethen, Bridges' friend, brought the body back to San Francisco and he was carried to the ultima thule of the city, Lone Mountain Cemetery." (ref. Penstemon bridgesii)
• britan'nica: of or from Great Britain (ref. Rumex britannica)
• Bri'za: see following entry (ref. genus Briza)
• brizifor'mis: from the Greek briza, a kind of rye-like grain growing in Macedonia (ref. Bromus briziformis)
• Brodiae'a/Bro'diaea: named for James Brodie (1744-1824), Scottish botanist who specialized in algae, ferns and mosses. The following is quoted from Joshua Wilson's 'Biographical index to the present House of Commons' (1808): "Mr. Brodie was bred up at the grammar school at Elgin, whence he removed to St. Andrews. He afterwards married Lady Margaret Duff, sister to the present earl of Fife, and had issue by her, two sons and two daughters. In 1786, her ladyship unfortunately perished by the unhappy circumstance of her clothes taking fire. One of his sons, after having resided in a commercial character in Spain, obtained leave to go to the East Indies in the capacity of a free merchant. His brother Alexander, formerly M. P. for the Elgin district of boroughs, has returned some years from Asia, where he acquired a considerable fortune. Mr. Brodie, who always had a scientific turn, is a F.R.S. [Fellow of the Royal Society] and L.S. [Linnaean Society]. He posesses a taste for botany, and has discovered several nondescript plants in his own grounds. He has now sat in three succeeding parliaments, having been returned in 1796; and is lord lieutenant of the county of Nairn." And from an English website called Botanists of Repute: "James Brodie collected and recorded plants, mainly around Edinburgh but also around Brodie Castle in Moray, towards the end of the eighteenth century. Most of Brodie's herbarium is in the Royal Botanic Gardens in Edinburgh. He was in regular contact with a number of eminent botanists of his time, including Sir William Jackson Hooker who became Professor of Botany at the University of Glasgow and also a Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, in England." He suffered another tragedy when his eldest son died in a drowning accident. His was a very old family, and the following gives some indication of just how old: "This most ancient family takes its name from the lands of Brodie near Forres in Morayshire. The family lost most of its early charters and other documents when the Gordons burnt the castle in 1645. Shaw suggests that the name itself is derived from the Gaelic word, ‘brothaig’, meaning ‘ditch’ or perhaps simply ‘muddy’. He suggests that they may have shared a common ancestry with the Morays and Inneses who were all settled along the Moray Firth in the twelfth century, pointing to the similarity of their coats of arms, each of which bears three stars." (from MyClan.com). He was a friend of the important British botanist Sir James Edward Smith, author of English Botany (ref. genus Brodiaea)
• bromo'ides: like genus Bromus (ref. Vulpia bromoides)
• Bro'mus: from the Greek bromos, an ancient name for the oat (ref. genus Bromus)
• brown'ii: after Horace Edgar Brown (1861-1943). David Hollombe contributed the following: "Horace Edgar Brown was born at Bloody Island, MO, 20 Oct. 1861. His family moved to Colorado, Nebraska, California, eastern Washington and Idaho. In 1896 his widowed mother homesteaded about 3 miles southeast of Forestville, Idaho, and that summer Brown was hired by Amos A. and Emily Heller as a guide on a collecting expedition, and Brown began collecting plant specimens on his own for sale. By November of that year he moved to California and collected in the Berry Creek area of Butte County where his brother-in-law, William W. Williams owned a large ranch. The next summer, he made an expedition to collect on what he apparently thought was Mount Shasta, but it seems, from the plants he brought back, he actually was on Mount Eddy. Brown lived near Santa Rosa for several years, and married there in 1889. He wrote from there to the New York Botanical Garden that year asking for advice on where to take his specimens for identification. He seems to have stopped collecting after 1898, except for the Spring of 1902 when he spent two months travelling and collecting from Sonoma County to Butte County and back with Heller. The 1910 census shows Brown working as a real estate agent in Sheridan, Oregon and in 1920 as a sawmill worker in the Coos Bay area where he remained until his death, October 28, 1943." (ref. Lathyrus brownii)
• brown'ii: after Robert Brown (1773-1858), well-known British botanist. The following is quoted from Wikipedia: "Robert Brown (December 21, 1773–June 10, 1858) is acknowledged as the leading British botanist to collect in Australia during the first half of the 19th century. Brown was born in Montrose, Scotland on 21 December 1773. He studied medicine and joined the army as a surgeon in 1795. In December 1800 he accepted an offer of the position of naturalist on board the Investigator under Matthew Flinders, which was about to depart on its historic yovage to chart the coast of Australia. The Investigator arrived in King George Sound in what is now Western Australia in December 1801. For 3½ years Brown did intensive botanic research in Australia, collecting about 3400 species, of which about 2000 were previously unknown. A large part of this collection was lost, however, when the Porpoise was wrecked en route to England. Brown remained in Australia until May 1805. He then returned to England where he spent the next four years working on the material he had gathered. He published numerous species descriptions; in Western Australia alone he is the author of nearly 1200 species. In 1810, he published the results of his collecting in his famous Prodromus Florae Novae Hollandiae, the first systematic account of the Australian flora. That year, he succeeded Jonas C. Dryander as Sir Joseph Banks' librarian, and on Banks' death in 1820 inherited his library and herbarium. This was transferred to the British Museum in 1827, and Brown was appointed Keeper of the Banksian Botanical Collection. In 1827, while examining pollen grains and the spores of mosses and Equisetum suspended in water under a microscope, Brown observed minute particles within vacuoles in the pollen grains executing a jittery motion. He then observed the same motion in particles of dust, enabling him to rule out the hypothesis that the motion was due to pollen being alive. Although he did not himself provide a theory to explain the motion, the phenomenon is now known as Brownian motion in his honour. After the division of the Natural History Department into three sections in 1837, Robert Brown became the first Keeper of the Botanical Department, remaining so until his death at Soho Square in London on June 10 1858. He was succeeded by John Joseph Bennett. Brown's name is commemorated in the Australia herb genus Brunonia, as well as numerous Australian species such as Eucalyptus brownii." (ref. Paeonia brownii)
• bruce'ae: after Cornelia Josephine Austin Bruce (Mrs. Charles Clinton Bruce) (see austiniae) (1865-1931) (ref. Potentilla drummondii ssp. bruceae)
  
• Brugman'sia: after Sebald Justin Brugmans (1763-1819), a professor of natural history at Leiden (ref. genus Brugmansia)
• bruneau'nis: named after the type locality, which is Bruneau Creek, in Idaho, this taxon is called the Bruneau mariposa lily (ref. Calochortus bruneaunis)
• brun'neus: brown (ref. Cordylanthus tenuis ssp. brunneus)
• bryo'ides: like moss (ref. Juncus bryoides, Lupinus breweri var. bryoides)
• Bryo'nia: Latin and Greek name used by Dioscorides and Pliny. The Jepson Manual gives this: "Greek: swelling, from sprouting of tuber each year." The Greek bryo means either "to sprout, grow or swell" or "moss" (ref. genus Bryonia)
• bryophor'a: moss- or lichen-bearing (ref. Saxifraga bryophora)
• buckwestior'um: this taxon is commonly called either Buckwest's clover or Santa Cruz clover, and -orum is a suffix usually given to a personal name to convert it to a substantival commemorative epithet when the epithet refers to two or more men or two or more people of mixed genders, thus Ceanothus hearstiorum, commemorating the Hearst family. In this case the individuals involved were Roy Ernest and James West (dates ?) (ref. Trifolium buckwestiorum)
• Bud'dleja: after the Reverend Adam Buddle (1660/1662-1715), an English botanist, this genus was originally in the Logania family, Loganiaceae, but has been placed by Jepson in a family of its own, the Buddlejaceae (ref. genus Buddleja)
• bufo'nis: see following entry (ref. Oenothera primiveris ssp. bufonis)
• bufo'nius: pertaining to toads or the habit of growing in moist places (ref. Juncus bufonius var. bufonius, Juncus bufonius var. congestus, Juncus bufonius var. occidentalis)
• bulbif'era: bulb-bearing
• Bul'bine: from the Greek bolbini or bolbos, "a bulb or onion," an old name used by Pliny for some species of little onion or other bulbed plant (ref. genus Bulbine)
• bulbo'sa/bulbo'sus: bulbous, swollen (ref. Melica bulbosa, Orobanche bulbosa, Poa bulbosa, Ranunculus bulbosus)
• Bulbosty'lis: having a bulb-like style (ref. genus Bulbostylis)
• bulla'ta: having a blistered or puckered surface, as in leaves (ref. Stachys bullata)
• -bundus: a Latin adjectival suffix used to indicate a sense of doing or of action accomplished (e.g. floribundus, "flowering or having already flowered, full of flowers," from florere, "to flower")
• Bupleur'um: from the Greek bous, "ox," and pleuron, "a rib" (ref. genus Bupleurum)
• burk'ei: after Joseph Burke (1812-1873), a an English botanical collector who worked in South Africa between 1839 and 1843, then descended the Columbia River from Canada into the Pacific Northwest and worked as a botanical collector in eastern Idaho. In 1845 he is recorded as having passed through an area in Utah. One source says that despite his energetic efforts, his results were scanty. The Royal Botanical Gardens of Kew had no list of his specimens and his seeds only produced a solitary juniper which grew to a meager height of 5' in 1884 (ref. Lasthenia burkei, Lupinus polyphyllus var. burkei)
• burlew'ii: after Fred Everts Burlew (1863-1954), an amateur botanist and photographer who was legal advisor to the California Academy of Sciences (ref. Allium burlewii)
• bur'sa-pastor'is: literally, a shepherd's purse (ref. Capsella bursa-pastoris)
• Bur'sera: after botanist Joachim Burser (1583-1649). "Joachim Burser was born in the city of Kamenz in Saxonia, Germany in 1583.  He was a medical doctor in Annaberg (Saxonia) until he was appointed a professor in Medicine and Botany at Ritter-Academy, Sorö, Denmark, in 1625, [a position he held until his death].  He died in Sorö in 1639.  Both before and after he came to Sorö he made extensive travels in Germany, Austria, Bohemia, Switzerland, Italy, France and the Pyrenees and during these travels he collected a considerable amount of plant material which he arranged in a "Hortus Siccus", an herbarium in book form.  It contained 25 volumes and a supplementary volume containing Danish plants.  When Burser died, the herbarium was bought by the Danish "riksråd" [Councilor of the Realm?] J. Seefeldt and included in his library.  During the Swedish-Danish war of 1658-60, Seefeldt's library was [seized by Charles X and] brought to Sweden as war booty.  In the beginning of the 1660s, the Burser Herbarium was owned by the Swedish statssekreterare [Junior Minister ?] J.P. Coijet when Olof Rudbeck the elder got to know about it.  Olov Rudbeck asked Coijet to give the herbarium to Uppsala University.  He had plans to edit a big botanical work with pictures of all known plants and in this connection Burser's Hortus Siccus was very useful.  The plants were to be arranged according to Caspar Bauhin's Pinax Theatri botanici and the plates were to be regarded as a Plant atlas to Bauhin's book.  Twelve volumes in folio were made and the original drawings were present in the Leuvsta library owned by de Geer at that time.  Rudbeck had in mind to prepare his Campus Elysii from those drawings and started to carve the wooden pieces. Two volumes appeared but the work was interrupted by the big fire in Uppsala in 1702 when most of it was destroyed.  Two volumes of Burser's Hortus Siccus were also destroyed, No. II and No. V. The other 23 volumes plus the Danish plants were preserved in the University library.  Burser's Hortus Siccus was used by Carl Linnaeus during the preparation for his Species Plantarum, and the herbarium is now a very important source for the typification of the Linnean names.  It has been since 1854 preserved in the Botanical Museum of Uppsala University.  The Herbarium consists of sheets, 20x35 cm in size, bound in 23 volumes in leather.  On every page there is a label handwritten by Burser himself according to Bauhin's Pinax.  Many plants are new and have been named by Burser. Often there is information on the locality especially for the new species.  On some occasions there are additions by Burser in weaker writings, e.g. presence in Denmark or German names of culture plants. The twenty-three volumes contain 3189 numbered sheets and to those a number of sheets were added later and marked with "post" or "ante".  For further information on Burser's Hortus siccus see the introduction in O. Juel, Joachim Burser's Hortus Siccus (1936) written in German.  We are now working with computerizing the material. (Dec. 1998)."  This information has been quoted almost exactly from the website (http://www-hotel.uu.se/evolmuseum/fytotek/) of the The Botany Section, Museum of Evolution at Uppsala University, Sweden, and I have made some minor changes to the quote to correct spelling, tenses or punctuation and to make its flow in English better, also to add a couple of brief additional pieces of information from other sources (ref. genus Bursera)
• bursifo'lia: with leaves like genus Bursa (ref. Crepis bursifolia)
• butten'sis: of or from Butte County (ref. Calystegia atriplicifolia ssp. buttensis)
• butterworthia'num: after botanist Clare Butterworth Hardham (1918- ), wife of John Fraser Hardham, see hardhamiae (ref. Eriogonum butterworthianum)
• buxbaum'ii: after German botanist Johann Christian Buxbaum (1693-1730), a scholar from the Russian Academy of Science and professor of botany at St. Petersburg, who produced some of the first scientific works on the flora of Estonia, and author of Plantarum minus cognitarum centuria (ref. Carex buxbaumii)
• buxifo'lia/buxifo'lium/buxifolius: with leaves like those of the boxwood, genus Buxus (ref. Garrya buxifolia, Galium buxifolium)