MA-ME

                  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.

• macdonaldia'na/macdon'aldii: after James Monroe McDonald (1825-1907). David Hollombe contributed the following from Cantelow and Cantelow and other sources: "McDonald, Capt. James Monroe, capitalist, philanthropist; born in Washington County, Kentucky, 10 July 1825, died in San Francisco, California, 7 June 1907." At an early age he crossed the plains with the first of the gold seekers to California (S.F. Chronicle). It was in appreciation of his generosity in making possible the publication of Prof. Edward Lee Greene's book, West American Oaks, that Alice Eastwood named a new species in his honor. He was one of the three who gave the Ricksecker collection of Coleoptera to the University of California in 1881." (ref. Arabis macdonaldiana, Quercus Xmacdonaldii)
• Machaeran'thera: Greek for sword-like anthers (ref. genus Machaeranthera)
• macilen'tum: thin, lean (ref. Trifolium macilentum)
• mackenziea'na: named for the MacKenzie River, the longest river in Canada, which flows from Great Slave Lake in the Northwest Territories to the Arctic Ocean (ref. Salix eriocephala var. mackenzieana)
• maclos'keyi: after George Macloskie (1834-1920), naturalist, educator, author, who was born in Castledawson, County Londonderry, Ireland, 14 September, 1834. He was educated at Queen's College, Belfast, where he received a gold medal in natural science in 1857, and in physical science in 1858. Subsequently he studied theology, and became a Presbyterian clergyman, having charge of the parish of Ballygoney during 1861-'73, and then was Secretary of the Bible and Colportage Society during 1873-'5. He was called to the Chair of Biology at Princeton University by President McCosh in 1874 (Macloskie had studied under him at Belfast), and held a professorship there until 1906.
  Macloskie and McCosh were strong defenders of evolution, as were their followers, chiefly Charles A. Young, the astronomer, and the physicist Cyrus Fogg Brackett. The trustees enthusiastically approved this choice after turning down the President's first selection of Theodore Gill, a Darwinist from the Smithsonian. Professor Macloskie received the honorary degree of D. Sc. from Queen's University, and that of LL. D. from London University, where in 1871 he received a gold medal for special excellence in a law examination. He was a member of various scientific societies, and a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. His writings include papers on insects and on botany in the "American Naturalist" and "Psyche," and he was the author of Elementary Botany, published in 1883 (Information from the website Virtual American Biographies and from the Encyclopedia of American Biography) (ref. Viola macloskeyi)
• Maclu'ra: after William Maclure (1763-1840), American geologist. The following is quoted from the website of Clark Kimberling, Professor of Mathematics at the University of Evansville: "Born to wealth in Ayr, Scotland, on October 27, 1763, William Maclure came to the United States in 1778. Before 1800, he had owned businesses in the new country, traveled extensively in Europe, and joined the American Philosophical Society. In 1803 Maclure served in Paris on a United States Commission representing American citizens with losses resulting from the French Revolution. In Switzerland in 1805, he visited the educational leader Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi, and in 1806 he contacted the Pestalozzian educator Joseph Neef. Having conducted geological studies in France and Spain, Maclure began intensive studies in the United States in 1808. In 1812, while in France, Maclure became a member of the newly founded Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia (ANSP). In 1815, Maclure contacted Charles-Alexandre Lesueur, artist and natural scientist, and the two traveled extensively together, arriving in Philadelphia in 1816. Joined by Thomas Say and Gerhard Troost, the four made a geological trip in eastern states in 1817. That same year, Maclure became president of the ANSP, a post he held for the next twenty-two years. The next few years, Maclure traveled and resided in France, Italy, Paris, Switzerland, and Spain. In 1824, he visited Robert Owen's cotton mill at New Lanark, Scotland. In July, 1825, he arrived in Philadelphia with Madame Fretageot's nephews. The following November, he met Robert Owen in Philadelphia and decided to join Owen's venture to Harmonie, recently purchased by Owen from the Harmonist leader, George Rapp. In January, 1826, the keelboat, Philanthropist, afterwards known as 'The Boatload of Knowledge,' journeyed down the Ohio River to Mount Vernon, Indiana. From there the travelers made their way to New Harmony. Among them were Lesueur, Say, Maclure, and Pestalozzian educators Marie Duclos Fretageot and William S. Phiquepal. Soon to join them in New Harmony were Neef and Troost. After 1826, Maclure spent most of his time in Mexico. However, he continued financial support through Madame Fratageot's management in New Harmony, enabling the scientific work of Thomas Say and Charles-Alexandre Lesueur and later, David Dale Owen and other geologists. Much has been written about the coming together of Maclure and Owen, as well as their separation of ways. According to W. H. G. Armytage, in William Maclure, 1763-1840: A British Interpretation, (Indiana Magazine of History 47 (1951) 1-20), 'Owen was anxious to inaugurate his new moral world as far away from the corrosions of the old one as possible; Maclure wished to try the Pestalozzian methods of instruction on human beings who had known no other. It was but natural that they should get together, especially as Maclure's considerable wealth enabled him to play the part of joint patron. The agreement was that each should provide the sum of one hundred fifty thousand dollars: an agreement which was to be the ostensible cause of their parting.' Twenty geological publications by William Maclure are listed in John M. Nickles, Geologic Literature on North America 1785-1918, Part I. Bibliography, U.S.G.S., Government Printing Office, Washington, 1923. Among these publications are 'Observations on the geology of the West India Islands, from Barbados to Santa Cruz, inclusive' and 'Essay on the formation of rocks, or an inquiry into the probable origin of their present form and structure,' appearing initially in Journal of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia in 1817 and 1818 and then as reprintings from the press in New Harmony in 1832. Most of Maclure's other publications appeared in American Journal of Science and Arts, founded by his colleague Benjamin Silliman, Professor of Chemistry at Yale, in 1818. The next year, Silliman organized the American Geological Society, and Maclure was elected president. The European Journals of William Maclure, edited, with Notes and Introduction by John S. Doskey, was published in 1988 by the American Philosophical Society." And from a History of Geology website by James Aber, Professor of Geology at Emporia State University: "Maclure, who is known as the 'father of American geology,'published the first widely available geologic map of the United States in 1809. He travelled throughout the region east of the Mississippi River, crossing and recrossing the Appalachians many times, making geological observations. His crudely drawn map utilizes the Wernerian system of classifying rocks and shows the distribution of rocks by color. The map accompanied Observations on the geology of the United States (1809), published in the Transactions of the American Philosophical Society. Observations was revised and expanded in 1817, but without adding much new geological information and retaining the Wernerian classification. Maclure adhered to the Wernerian system, which placed severe limits on his understanding of geology. He paid little attention to fossils, which he did not use for stratigraphy. Thus, he did not recognize the relationship between Paleozoic strata of the Appalachian Mountains and Appalachian Plateau regions. He cannot be regarded as a great stratigrapher, such as William Smith of England. Maclure was, in fact, at least a decade or more behind in terms of geological concepts in Europe. Nonetheless, his map and report were the first widely circulated account of geology in the United States. On that basis rests his claim as the 'father of American geology.' He also had quite progressive plans for agricultural education. In spite of much effort, however, he did not succeed in putting his ideas into practice. Nonetheless, he influenced many contemporaries and he played a significant role in development of American geology through his activities." (ref. genus Maclura)
• macnabia'na: after William Ramsey McNab (1844-1889), Professor of Botany at University College Dublin (ref. Callitropsis [formerly Cupressus] macnabiana)
• macoun'ii: after John Macoun (1831-1920), Irish-Canadian explorer and botanist, and considered by many to be the Dean of Canadian naturalists. The following is quoted from an online essay by Bill Waiser on a website called the Canada Heirloom Series: "It became a ritual. Each fall, John Macoun would return from western Canada and brief government officials about his latest discoveries. But 1881 was different. At the conclusion of his meeting with the Deputy Minister of the Interior, Macoun was named Dominion Botanist. The appointment was confirmed in a short private interview with the Prime Minister. At age 50, when most people of his generation contemplated retirement, Macoun had attained his life-long dream. That John Macoun was named Canada’s first Dominion Botanist was a testament to his infectious energy and stubborn determination. Fatherless from the age of six, nineteen-year-old John had immigrated in 1850 from famine-riddled Northern Ireland to Canada West. While working in the fields and forests of backwoods Ontario, John took an interest in the local flora that rapidly evolved into a serious study of Canadian botany. Never satisfied as a farmer, he trained as a teacher so that he could devote every spare moment to his plants. He would take a new or unusual specimen, try to identify it using the few books at hand, and then add it to his ever-expanding private herbarium. This painstaking self-study, together with his exhaustive field work and growing correspondence with leading botanists in Great Britain and the United States, established his reputation as an expert on the local flora and resulted in his appointment, in 1868, as chair of natural history at Belleville’s Albert College.
      The turning point in Macoun’s career came, however, during one of his summer collecting trips when he met, by coincidence, Sandford Fleming in the Owen Sound district in 1872. Fleming, Canadian Pacific Railway engineer-in-chief, was headed west to assess the proposed Yellowhead Pass route for the new transcontinental railway. He invited Macoun, or “the Professor” as he was popularly known, to come along. Over the next decade, during five separate exploratory surveys between 1872 and 1881, Macoun examined the farming potential of the prairies, concluding that all of the North-West, including the semi-arid southern plains, was an agricultural Eden. This endorsement of the region’s future dovetailed with Ottawa’s great expectations and made Macoun the darling of the government – hence his reward as Dominion Botanist.
      Macoun tackled his duties with missionary zeal – so much so that, within six years, he was appointed Survey Naturalist. A confirmed anti-Darwinist, Macoun believed that a natural scientist should be a kind of jack-of-all-trades whose role was to assemble an inventory of God’s wondrous bounty. He spent as much time as possible in the field each season, gathering any living thing he chanced upon – plants, birds, mammals, fish, even insects – in the hope of discovering species new to science. Someone stumbling upon his campsite, with his day’s collection strewn about in various stages of preparation, might have mistaken it for a kind of devil’s workshop.
      What drove Macoun during his 30-year career at the Survey, what kept him constantly on the move, despite his age, was a belief in the profound importance of his work to the young Dominion. He believed his duty was to provide practical information on Canada’s great resource heritage, information that could be used for development purposes. Whether examining the Yukon, the Alberta foothills, or remote Sable Island on the Atlantic, he always returned to Ottawa heavily laden with specimens. His enthusiasm for his work knew no bounds. Macoun’s feverish pace came to an end in 1912 when he suffered a stroke. Retiring to Vancouver Island, he remained active, continuing to collect along the ocean when not completing his autobiography. When he died in 1920, in his ninetieth year, natural scientists around the world mourned the passing of the dean of Canadian naturalists.     Macoun’s career had a profound influence in the development of life sciences. Without his tenacity and drive, it is unlikely that the Geographical Survey of Canada would have engaged in natural history to the extent that it did. Thanks to his ability to apply his naturalist skills to practical ends, scientific research came to be regarded as a legitimate government-funded activity. Macoun’s wide-ranging field collections also figured in the early twentieth century. His natural history collection reached such proportions that the Canadian government found itself custodian of a “national collection.” Macoun’s greatest legacy was as a field naturalist. He collected widely and thoroughly, usually labouring from dawn to dusk. Few obstacles deterred him. In the process, he developed an unrivalled knowledge of Canada’s natural life and could recognize new species at sight, many of which were named after him. What was perhaps most amazing was the range of territory he covered: he literally tramped tens of thousands of miles over all kinds of terrain. His collections, moreover, not only were the first extensive ones made in a particular area but, in many instances, were made before the natural environment was disturbed. John Macoun singlehandedly rolled back the natural history frontiers of Canada." (ref. Senecio macounii)
• macraden'ia: with large glands (ref. Arenaria macradenia, Holocarpha macradenia)
• mac'raei/macrae'i: after James Macrae (?-1830?) Scottish botanist who sailed with Captain George Anson (Lord) Byron (a cousin of the poet George Gordon (Lord) Byron) on the HMS Blonde in 1825, collected plants for the Horticultural Society of London on the Sandwich Islands and Galápagos Islands and in Chile and Brazil, and was Superintendent of the Ceylon Botanic Gardens, 1827–30 (Information from Darwin Correspondence Online Database). Macrae made 41 collections on the island of Isabela off the coast of Ecuador between 26 March and 2 April 1825; 37 were included by Hooker (1847) and 20 represented new species. While in the Hawaiian Islands, he ascended Mauna Kea and collected samples of the silversword plant which he sent to Hooker. He was the author of With Lord Byron at the Sandwich Islands in 1825 published in Honolulu in 1922 (ref. Trifolium macraei)
• macran'dus: with large anthers (ref. Juncus macrandus)
• macran'tha: large-flowered (ref. Chaenactis macrantha, Koeleria macrantha, Lasthenia macrantha, Monardella macrantha ssp. hallii, Poa macrantha)
• macrocar'pa/macrocar'pus: with large fruits or seed pods (ref. Pseudotsuga macrocarpa, Marah macrocarpus var. macrocarpus, Marah macrocarpus var. major)
• macrocar'pon: same as above entry (ref. Vaccinum macrocarpon)
• macroceph'ala/macroceph'alum: with a large head (ref. Ericameria cuneata var. macrocephala, Trifolium macrocephalum)
• macrocer'a: from the Greek makros, "large," and keras, "horn," comparing the longer and more obtuse free portion of the corolla spur to the 'very slender, but short horn' of P. congesta (ref. Plectritis macrocera)
• ma'crodon/macro'don: with large teeth (ref. Astragalus macrodon)
• macrolep'is: large-scaled (ref. Balsamorhiza macrolepis)
• macro'meris: with large parts
• macropet'ala: with large petals (ref. Heuchera micrantha var. macropetala)
• macrophyl'la/macrophyl'lum/macrophyl'lus: large-leaved (ref. Arenaria macrophylla, Thermopsis macrophylla, Acer macrophyllum, Erodium macrophyllum, Geum macrophyllum, Phoradendron macrophyllum, Juncus macrophyllus)
• macropo'da: with a large stalk
• macrorhi'za: with large roots or root stocks (ref. Opuntia macrorhiza)
• macrosiph'on: from the roots macro and sipho, "a siphon or tube" (ref. Iris macrosiphon)
• macrosper'mum: large-seeded or large fruited (ref. Chenopodium macrospermum)
• macrosta'chya: from macro, "large," and stachys, "an ear of grain," referring to the spikes of the inflorescence (ref. Eleocharis macrostachya, Hoita [formerly Psoralea] macrostachya)
• macroste'gia: a large covering (ref. Atriplex macrostegia, Calystegia macrostegia ssp. cyclostegia, Calystegia macrostegia ssp. intermedia, Calystegia macrostegia ssp. macrostegia, Calystegia macrostegia ssp. tenuiflora)
• macrothe'ca: from the Greek macro, "large," and theke, "cover or container" (ref. Spergularia macrotheca)
• macrour'um/macrour'us: from the Greek makros, "long," and oura, "tail." Rydberg described the species as having styles 8-10 cm. long in fruit, longer than those of any other species in his account of the genus (ref. Pennisetum macrourum, Cercocarpus betuloides var.macrourus)
• macrur'us: alternate spelling of macrourus, "long-tailed"
• macula'ta/macula'tum/macula'tus: spotted, referring to purple splotches on the stems of leaves or on petals (ref. Chamaesyce maculata, Corallorhiza maculata, Conium maculatum, Eriogonum maculatum, Linanthus maculatus)
• maculo'sa: spotted (ref. Centaurea maculosa)
• maderen'sis: referring to the Portuguese island of Madeira in the Atlantic off the coast of west Africa (ref. Genista maderensis)
• Mad'ia: from the native Chilean name Madi for the species Madia sativa (ref. genus Madia)
• madio'ides: like genus Madia (ref. Madia madioides)
• madriten'sis: of or from Madrid, Spain (ref. Bromus madritensis ssp. rubens)
• magdalen'ae: named after Magdalena Bay and/or to the Magdalena Desert comprising the lower third of the Baja Peninsula (ref. Astragalus magdalenae)
• magellan'ica: of the area of the Straits of Magellan, South America (ref. Fuchsia magellanica)
• magnif'ica/magnif'icus: magnificent (ref. Abies magnifica, Lupinus magnificus)
• magnifo'lium: with large leaves, originally published as a subspecies of Galium matthewsii, which has smaller leaves (ref. Galium magnidolium)
• Maho'nia: after the Irish-born horticulturist Bernard McMahon (sometimes spelled M'Mahon) (1775-1816), described as a botanist and seedsman who came to the U.S. in 1796 and was a nurseryman in Philadelphia. The following is quoted from an Ohio State University website called History of Horticulture: "M'Mahon was born in Ireland but came to America in 1796 because of political instability in that country. He settled in Philadelphia and established a seed and nursery business. Very shortly thereafter he began to collect and export seeds of American plants. By this means many nature plants became established in Europe. In 1804 his catalogue of seeds included 1,000 "species." He became acquainted with Thomas Jefferson as well as other distinguished men of his time. It is said that the famous Lewis and Clark expedition was planned in his home. His horticultural interests were very broad and his seed store became a meeting place for botanists and horticulturists. M'Mahon and Landreth distributed the seeds collected in the Lewis and Clark expedition. He published in 1806 the first really important horticultural book which was entitled, American Gardener's Calendar. This was a standard encyclopedia for many years. The 11th edition was published in 1857." (ref. genus Mahonia)
• Maianth'emum: from the Greek for May flower, from the blooming season (ref. genus Maianthemum)
• ma'jor: larger, greater (see minor) (ref. Caulanthus major, Plantago major, Vinca major)
• ma'jus: bigger, larger (ref. Ammi majus, Antirrhinum majus, Tropaeolum majus)
• mak'asin: so far the only possible derivation I've found for this is the word makasin in the Powhatan Algonquin language meaning "shoe" and from which comes "moccasin." Makasin was also apparently the Algonquin name for these flowers (ref. Cypripedium parviflorum var. makasin)
• malachro'ides: like genus Malachra, an older name for Malva (ref. Sidalcea malachroides)
• malaco'ides: from the Greek malakos, "soft, gentle," soft, mucilaginous for the leaves and stems (ref. Erodium malacoides)
• malacophyl'la: having soft leaves (ref. Calystegia malacophylla ssp. pedicellata)
• Malacotham'nus: derived from the Greek malakos, "soft," and thamnos, "shrub" (ref. genus Malacothamnus)
• Malaco'thrix: from the Greek malakos, "soft," and thrix, "hair," thus referring to the wooliness of the young plant (ref. genus Malacothrix)
• mala'cus: soft (ref. Astragalus malacus)
• Malax'is: from the Greek for "soft" from the texture of the leaves (ref. genus Malaxis)
• Malcol'mia: after British nurseryman William Malcolm (?-1798) and/or his son (or other relative) William Malcolm (1768-1835). These dates are somewhat in question because the Jepson Manual gives 1769-1820 for William Malcolm without specifying whether this was for the older or younger Malcolm, and Stearns Dictionary gives a death date of 1820 for the older Malcolm and gives dates of 1769-1835 for the younger Malcolm. But the Dictionary of British and Irish Botanists and Horticulturists by Ray Desmond confirms the first dates given above, as does Umberto Quattrocchi's CRC World Dictionary of Plant Names approximately. The elder Malcolm was the author in 1771 of A Catalogue of Hot-House and Green-House Plants, Fruit and Forest Trees. However, David Hollombe sent me the following: "I have a copy of the will of the elder William Malcolm and it does not mention the younger William Malcolm. It lists the former's three sons as James, Marmaduke George Russell and Jacob. It also mentions an Alexander Malcolm, brought into the family business by Jacob when James left, but doesn't mention how or if he was related. The point is that the younger William Malcolm does not appear to have been the son of the elder, at least from the evidence of the will." Obviously there is a great deal of uncertainty as to the etymology of this name and it remains to be seen whether it will ever be resolved (ref. genus Malcolmia)
• Maleph'ora: from the Greek male for "armhole" and phorein, "to bear," in reference to the seed pockets of the fruit (ref. genus Malephora)
• malibuen'sis: of or from Malibu, California (ref. Baccharis malibuensis)
• ma'lior: ??? (ref. Gilia malior)
• mal'loryi: named after James Irving Mallory (1924-2002), a retired conservationist-educator and a soil scientist for pacific Southwest Forest Experiment Station and the U.S. Forest service. Born Aug. 12, 1924, in Richmond, he moved to Shasta County in 1959 from Pleasant Hill. He was also a teacher at Chico State University and the NEED Camp at Whiskeytown. Mr. Mallory was a member of Pilgrim Congregational Church, a founding member of the Forestry Museum, a member of the California Native Plant Society, the Society of American Foresters, the Society for Range Management, Shasta Resource Conservation District, Horsetown-Clear Creek Preserve, Soil Conservation Society and the Sierra Club (Thanks to David Hollombe for this information) (ref. Arctostaphylos malloryi)
• Malos'ma: the Jepson Manual says "Latin: from odor which resembles that of an apple." Malum is Latin for "apple" and -osma for "odor, smell." Nuttall's description includes the following: "A low spreading tree or large shrub, much branched and very leafy, exhaling to a considerable distance an aromatic odor, something like that of the Bitter Almond (whence the name)." Umberto Quattrocchi's Dictionary of Plant Names refers to the Greek melon or malon as "an apple, or any tree fruit" which could explain Nuttall's mention of bitter almond (ref. genus Malosma)
• Malper'ia: Jepson suggests it is an anagram of Palmeri, although the number of letters is not the same. Umberto Quattrocchi says however that it is named for Edward Palmer (1831-1911) (ref. genus Malperia)
• Mal'us: a classical name for the apple (ref. genus Malus)
• Mal'va: a Latin name for mallow taken from the Greek malache, or malakos, referring to the leaves and an ointment made from the seeds which was supposed to be soothing to the skin (ref. genus Malva)
• malva'ceum: mallow-like, referring to the shape of the leaves (ref. Ribes malvaceum var. viridifolium)
• Malvel'la: small mallow (ref. genus Malvella)
• malviflor'a: mallow-flowered (ref. Sidalcea malviflora ssp. dolosa, Sidalcea malviflora ssp. sparsifolia)
• malvifo'lia: with mallow-like leaves (ref. Jepsonia malvifolia)
• Mammillar'ia: from the Latin mammilla, "a nipple" (ref. genus Mammillaria)
• maniopotam'icus: of the Mad River in Humboldt County (ref. Erigeron maniopotamicus)
• Mar'ah: named because of the intensely bitter roots and a reference to the bitter waters of Marah mentioned in the Bible, although Munz states that it is an aboriginal name (ref. genus Marah)
• marces'cens: withering but persistent, as petals and sepals or the basal leaves of some plants (ref. Dudleya cymosa ssp. marcescens)
• margarita'cea: from the Latin margarita, "a pearl," hence pertaining to pearls, pearly (ref. Anaphalis margaritacea)
• margina'ta/margina'tum: margined with another color (ref. Antennaria marginata, Callitriche marginata, Glyptopleura marginata, Oenothera caespitosa ssp. marginata, Solanum marginatum)
• maria'num: referring to the story that the white marks on the leaves resulted from drops of milk shed while Mary nursed the Christ child. The species Silybum marianum has been called Our Lady's or blessed thistle. According to Stearn's Dictionary of Plant Names, the specific epithet has also been used to refer to species from Maryland, which was at one time called Terra Mariana (ref. Silybum marianum)
• marifo'lium: David Hollombe contributes the following: "Marum was an herb mentioned by Pliny ('In Egypt, too, grows marum, though of inferior quality to that of Lydia, which last has larger leaves, covered with spots. Those of the other are shorter and smaller, and give out a powerful scent') and by Dioscorides and Theophrastus. It is thought to have been Teucrium marum. P. Miller used Marum as a generic name for Origanum syriacum, but that use of the name seems to have never caught on."
  (ref. Eriogonum marifolium)
• mariland'ica: of or from Maryland (ref. Senna marilandica)
• marin'a/marin'um: growing by or in the sea (ref. Avicennia marina, Najas marina, Spergularia marina, Zostera marina, Hordeum marinum)
• Marin'a: after the baptismal name of an interpreter (1505-1530) for the Mexican conqueror Cortez. She was an Aztec woman who was given to Cortez as a slave. The Mexicans refer to her as Dona Marina and the Aztecs called her La Malinche. Cortez was apparently called Malinche which Prescott translated as Captain, and La Malinche was taken to mean "the Captain's woman" (ref. genus Marina)
• marinen'se/marinen'sis: named after Marin County (ref. Polygonum marinense, Horkelia marinensis)
• maripo'sa: Spanish for "butterfly" or relating to the town of Mariposa which is in the Sierras where this taxon is said to be located? One flora lists it as growing in Kings River Canyon which is in the same general vicinity (ref. Arctostaphylos viscida ssp. mariposa)
• maripos'ae/mariposa'na/mariposa'nus: of or from Mariposa County (ref. Cryptantha mariposae, Carex mariposana, Erigeron mariposanus)
• mari'tima/marit'imus: of the sea (ref. Abronia maritima, Armeria maritima ssp. californica, Batis maritima, Cakile maritima, Calandrinia maritima, Coreopsis maritima, Cryptantha maritima, Dithyrea maritima, Lasthenia maritima, Lobularia maritima, Muilla maritima, Plantago maritima, Ruppia maritima, Bromus carinatus var. maritimus, Cordylanthus maritimus, Polypogon maritimus, Scirpus maritimus)
• marmora'tum: marbled, mottled (ref. Asarum marmoratum)
• marmoren'sis: from the Latin marmor, "marble" and marmoratus, "marbled," and -ensis, a Latin adjectival suffix used to indicate country of origin, place of growth or habitat, the common name of this taxon is Marble Mountain campion (ref. Silene marmorensis)
• marocca'na: of or from Morocco (ref. Linaria maroccana)
• marrubio'ides: like genus Marrubium (ref. Malacothamnus marrubioides)
• Marru'bium: based on an ancient Hebrew word meaning "bitter," this was the classical Latin name for a familiar cough remedy (ref. genus Marrubium)
• mar'shallii: after Carl Coren Marshall (1852-1929), school teacher, author and publisher of textbooks on bookkeeping, business English and 'commercial arithmetic, amateur botanist. Quoted from an obituary in the Arcata Union 10 Oct. 1929: "Carl Marshall, prominent early day Humboldt educator, died at his home in Tujunga Sunday after a heart attack. Mr. Marshall was an instructor in the old Eureka Academy at Fifth and K streets after he came to Eureka more than 40 years ago. He also taught school in Arcata. When the old academy burned in 1893 Marshall becamae part proprietor of Eureka Business college, now operated by J. J. Craddock. Later he went to Battle Creek, Michigan, and was connected with educational journals in the east. Marshall later returned to Ettersburg in Humboldt county where he made his home for many years and devoted much time to botany, his hobby. At Ettersburg he had a fine opportunity to study many wild flowers.He was also in charge of a school on the Klamath and wrote many entertaining newspaper articles about that section.
  In addition to his widow he leaves two sons and three daughters." (ref. Ribes marshallii)
• marsh'ii: after Vernon Leroy Marsh (1906-1995), author of A Taxonomic Revision of the Genus Poa of the United States and Southern Canada. He was born in Kansan and died near Olympia, Washington. It appears that he was interested in both plants and birds and wrote on both subjects. He seems to have specialized in grasses, and may have been a botanist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (ref. Poa abbreviata ssp. marshii)
• Marsil'ea: named for the Italian soldier, botanist, geographer, and naturalist named Luigi Ferdinando, Count de Marsigli (sometimes referred to as L.F. Marsili or L.F. Marsigli) (1658-1730). The following is quoted from the Catholic Encyclopedia: "Count Luigi Ferdinando Marsigli (Lat. Marsilius, 1658-1730), was a member of an old patrician family and was educated in accordance with his rank. He supplemented his training by studying mathematics, anatomy, and natural history with the best teachers, and by personal observations. As a soldier he was sent by the Republic of Venice to Constantinople in 1679. There he investigated the condition of the Turkish forces, while at the same time he observed the surroundings of the Thracian Bosporus. Both of these matters were fully reported by him. In 1680, when the Turks threatened to invade Hungary, he offered his services to the Emperor Leopold. On 2 July, 1683 (the feast of the Visitation), he fell wounded and was taken prisoner. He suffered as a slave until he was ransomed on 25 March, 1684 (the feast of the Annunciation). His reflections on these two feast days show his great piety: on these days, he says, on which the august protectress of the faithful is particularly honoured, she obtained for him two graces: salutary punishment for his past faults and an end to his punishment. After the long war he was employed to arrange the boundaries between the Venetian Republic, Turkey, and the Empire. During the war of the Spanish Succession he was second in command under Count d'Arco at the fortress of Breisach, which surrendered in 1703. Count d'Arco was beheaded because he was found guilty of capitulating before it was necessary, while Marsigli was stripped of all honours and commissions, and his sword was broken over him. His appeals to the emperor were in vain. Public opinion, however, acquitted him later of the charge of neglect or ignorance. In the midst of his work as a soldier he had always found enough leisure to devote to his favourite scientific pursuits. He drew plans, made astronomical observations, measured the speed and size of rivers, studied the products, the mines, the birds, fishes, and fossils of every land he visited, and also collected specimens of every kind, instruments, models, antiquities, etc. Finally he returned to Bologna and presented his entire collection to the Senate of Bologna in 1712. There he founded his "Institute of Sciences and Arts", which was formally opened in 1715. Six professors were put in charge of the different divisions of the institute. Later he established a printing-house furnished with the best types for Latin, Greek, Hebrew, and Arabic. This was put in charge of the Dominicans, and placed under the patronage of St. Thomas Aquinas. In 1727 he added to his other collections East India material which he collected in England and Holland. A solemn procession of the institute he founded was ordered for every twenty-five years on the feast of the Annunciation. In 1715 he was named foreign associate of the Paris Academy of Sciences; he was also a member of the Royal Society of London, and of Montpellier. His principal works are the following: "Osservazioni interne al Bosforo Tracio" (Rome, 1681); "Histoire physique de la mer", translated by Leclerc (Amsterdam, 1725); "Danubius Pannonico-mysicus, observationibus", etc. (7 vols., Hague, 1726); "L'Etat militaire de l'empire ottoman" (Amsterdam, 1732)." (ref. genus Marsilea)
• martindal'ei: named after Isaac C. Martindale (1842-1893), of Camden, N.J. who "brought together a vast herbarium, reputed to be one of the largest private herbaria amassed in this country during the 19th century . After he died, the Martindale Collection was sold in 1894 to the Philadelphia Academy of Science and in 1964 was purchased by the United States Department of Agriculture for the National Arboretum. This collection includes approximately 80,000 specimens, plus eleven bound volumes of exsiccate [??], notebooks, and a few letters. It represents both Martindale's work and that of over 900 other collectors spanning a time from the 1790's to the early 1890's." (from a website of the Herbarium of the United States National Arboretum) (ref. Lomatium martindalei)
• mar'tinii/martin'ii: my indefatigable source David Hollombe reports that this name refers to Martin's Camp in the San Gabriel Mountains, located in the saddle between Mt. Wilson (then called Wilson's Peak) and Mt. Harvard, originally begun around 1889 by a young Pasadena restauranteur named Peter Steil. Steil sold the camp to Clarence Sinclair Martin in 1891 and it was henceforth called Martin's Camp. Martin (1852-1911) was a former printer from Boston who later rebuilt Switzer's Camp in the Arroyo Seco in 1905 and ran it until his death (ref. Castilleja applegatei ssp. martinii)
• mar'vinii/marvin'ii: after Cornelius James Marvin (1888-1944), chemist and amateur photographer. The following is from an obituary in the Pasadena Post 28 April 1944: [He was] "assistant manager of the Du Pont plant in El Monte. Since his graduation from the University of Colorado in 1913, he had been with that company, and for the past 25 years he specialized in the chemical engineering field. A leader in civic and cultural activities, Mr. Marvin played in the first violin section of the Pasadena Civic Orchestra, pioneered in the field of color photography and was recognized for his outstanding reproductions of rare flowers. An active member of the American Chemical Society for the past 20 years, he was a member and direc­tor of-the South Pasadena Oneonta Club." (ref. Allium marvinii)
• ma'sonii/mason'ii: after Herbert Louis Mason (1896-1994), professor of botany at Berkeley. The following is quoted from a memorium essay by Lincoln Constance and Robert Orduff:  "Herbert Mason joined the Berkeley Department of Botany in 1925, and served there continuously until his retirement in 1963, the last twenty-two years as professor of botany and director of the herbarium. He was born in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, on January 3, 1896, one of a pair of identical twins who were the eighth and ninth children of Thomas and Harriet Mason. His interest in botany was developed as a child through his mother's enthusiasm for gardening and her informal teaching about plant life. The twins entered Stanford University from high school, but volunteered for World War I, and were stationed at an army hospital at Beaune, France. Returning to Stanford after the war, Herbert received the A. B. in 1921. He obtained an M.A. from Berkeley in 1923, and then taught during 1923-1925 at Mills College, an institution for which he retained a life-long affection. Summers, he worked for the Carnegie Institution of Washington, first assisting in F. E. Clements' altitudinal transplanting program in Colorado (subsequently transferred to California) and later hunting fossils in the John Day formation of Central Oregon with R.W. Chaney. Mason's initial appointment at Berkeley was that of an associate in W. L. Jepson's Phenogamic Laboratory, where he acted as a back-up for Jepson's instructional duties, in view of Jepson's failing health. In 1931, Mason married Lucile Roush, a fellow Stanford graduate and Berkeley graduate student who was working on coralline algae with W. A. Setchell, and was in charge of elementary laboratories. Both Herbert and Lucile were awarded the Ph.D. degree the following year. His thesis, which dealt with western American Tertiary paleobotany, was administered by a committee comprising W. L. Jepson (chairman), R. W. Chaney, and C. L. Camp. Mason was named instructor and assistant curator in the herbarium in 1933, assistant professor and associate curator in 1934, associate professor and curator in 1938, and professor and director in 1941, the position he held until attaining emeritus status in 1963. Mason's teaching responsibilities and research interests were closely intertwined and nourished each other. He published a substantial number of papers either alone or in association with Chaney on the Tertiary history of western American coniferous trees, particularly the so-called "closed-cone" pines. He was very knowledgeable concerning living western floras, but his most ambitious taxonomic work was his masterly treatment, in association with Alva Day Grant, of the Polemoniaceae (Phlox Family) in Abrams' Illustrated Flora of the Pacific States. Although a self-professed taxonomist, Mason was always more interested in the causes underlying plant evolution and distribution, both past and present, than he was in details of classification. His efforts shifted more and more to what he termed "plant geography" to distinguish it from the then mainstream plant ecology, which was for many years dominated by the ideas and overblown terminology of F. E. Clements. Mason stressed the direct relationship of environmental factors to the varied tolerance capacities of the plants comprising a given community, and rejected the almost organismal interpretation of "associations," "climaxes," and other phytosociological abstractions. One of his most productive accomplishments was the isolation of the role of soil minerals in the development and restricted distribution of plants on California's rich serpentine deposits. Jenny, Vlamis, and Walker were inspired to investigate the physiological basis of serpentine tolerance, while Kruckeberg and McMillan explored the genecological basis of plant response to serpentine soils. Mason was a particularly effective critic in the ecological field, where his influence was often considerable, as on the organization and content of Stanley Cain's landmark Foundations of Plant Geography, and in the writings of R. H. Whittaker. In 1949 and 1950, Mason joined A. H. Miller and R. A. Stirton in an expedition to the Magdalena Basin of Colombia, sponsored by the Associates in Tropical Biogeography. The objective was to study periodic phenomena under tropical conditions without marked seasons; we assume that the results with respect to plants were inconclusive. The State Division of Fish and Game commissioned a botanical survey of California wetlands carried out by Mason and his graduate students. It culminated in the production of A Flora of the Marshes of California (1957), doubtless his best-known work. Throughout his career, but more prominently in his later years, Mason became interested in various theoretical and philosophical issues. As editor of Madrono, Journal of the California Botanical Society, he served as director of this project, which he found richly rewarding, and which has had an important impact on science education in the United States. Mason was affiliated with a number of professional and conservation organizations during his career, and served as president of the Western Society of Naturalists, the Western Section of the Ecological Society of America, the Regional Parks Association, the California Botanical Society, and the American Society of Plant Taxonomists. The Masons, famous for their hospitality, were continuously involved with students, colleagues, and long-time friends. Shortly after his retirement, they moved to Bellingham, Washington, to be near their son, David, a professor in Fairhaven College of Western Washington University. Lucile Mason died in 1986." Herbert Mason was the namer of Linanthus killipii (ref. Ceanothus masonii, Lilaeopsis masonii, Stylocline masonii)
• Mate'lea: David Hollombe contributes the following: "Aublet did not explain Matelea and it is assumed it was a name of the plant in some native language in French Guiana. Aublet collected a lot of information on the uses of plants by native and other groups. Often, when he shortened or modified a native name to name a new genus he listed the original word, but he left many others unexplained." The Aublet he refers to was French botanist Jean Baptiste Christophore Fuséé Aublet (1720-1778) who was the first European to document the flora of French Guiana and was the author in 1775 of Histoire des Plantes de la Guiane Francoise (ref. genus Matelea)
• mathias'iae: after Dr. Mildren E. Mathias (1906-1995), plant taxonomist and naturalist. "Mildred Esther Mathias was born on September 19, 1906, in Sappington, Missouri, then a rural truck farming area just south of St. Louis. Her father, Oliver John Mathias, was a teacher, and the family moved around eastern Missouri, to Cape Girardeau, Ste. Genevieve, Festus, and Desloge, as Mildred was growing up. She showed an early interest in nature and gardening and a love to learn. In Desloge, where her father was school superintendent, Mildred graduated from high school in the class of 1923 and presented the valedictory address. Remarkably, while still a senior in high school, she was the first student to enroll at the nearby, newly established Junior College of Flat River; each day Mildred attended her high school typing class at 7:00 a.m. before catching a train to college. That intensity to learn never changed. Mildred transferred to the State Teachers College in Cape Girardeau, and then registered in fall, 1923, at Washington University in St. Louis. Her family relocated to St. Louis so that Mildred could live at home while attending WU. There Mildred majored in mathematics until her junior year, but switched to botany when classes for her major were unavailable, and when the Dean of Engineering would not give permission to a woman to take a math course in his male-only college. Fortunately, Mildred was soon hooked on botany, and at Washington University earned the A.B. (1926), M.A. (1927) and Ph.D. (1929) while conducting her graduate research at the Missouri Botanical Garden. For her doctoral dissertation, Mildred Mathias, at the age of 22, produced a very fine taxonomic monograph on Cymopterus and relatives of the carrot family (Umbelliferae). New World umbellifer genera and species then were poorly defined-and she was set to change all that. During the summer of 1929, Mildred, in her Model T Ford, which she could repair herself, and with two female companions, traveled across the western United States to visit numerous populations and type localities of Umbelliferae. After marrying Gerald L. Hassler, a Ph.D. in physics, in Philadelphia on August 30, 1930, Mildred carried on independent research on the umbellifers during various research appointments, often without pay. In 1939, Dr. Lincoln Constance at the University of California, Berkeley, joined in the study, and from 1940 to 1981 they published together more than 60 scientific papers on Umbelliferae of the New World, including descriptions of about 100 new species, hundreds of new combinations, and several new genera. In 1954, an umbellifer from northeastern Mexico was named as the genus Mathiasella in her honor. Her expertise on umbellifers earned her early international recognition in taxonomy, and in 1964 she was elected as the first woman president of the American Society of Plant Taxonomists. In 1944, the Hasslers permanently settled in southern California. Mildred, now mother of four, was pleased to accept a staff position at UCLA in fall, 1947, as herbarium botanist, under the supervision of Professor Carl Epling. In 1951, that position was elevated to lecturer, so that her talents could be utilized to teach plant taxonomy, and four years later Dr. Mathias was appointed as assistant professor in the Department of Botany, one of very few women who then held a faculty position at UCLA, and vice chair of the department. As a "young" assistant professor, she took her first trip outside the U.S. in 1958, to Baja California, with an energetic UCLA botany graduate student named Peter H. Raven. 1951 was the year that Mildred Mathias published her first articles on California horticulture. She with several other horticulturists began introducing nurseries and gardeners to a diverse palette of botanically interesting and nonconventional subtropical plants that would thrive in coastal and desert southern California. The quality of landscape planting in Los Angeles improved immensely thereafter, and the UCLA campus was converted into an arboretum of exotic trees. She published and spoke often on the importance of correct scientific identification and nomenclature of horticultural materials, and her educational exhibits at garden shows won awards. In 1956, Mildred Mathias was appointed director of the Botanical Garden, and served as such until retirement in 1974, providing tireless service to horticultural organizations in California and around the world, as well as generating a huge following of landscapers and amateur gardeners plus admiration from public and private gardens throughout the world. Her professional career took a major turn from 1959 to 1964, when Mathias joined Dermot Taylor, Chair of Pharmacology at UCLA, to collect and screen plants of tropical forests for new medicines. She made expeditions to Amazonian Peru and Ecuador, Tanganyika, and Zanzibar, and was able to learn about drug plants from native herbalists and medicine men. This was when the field of ethnopharmacology was in its infancy. Her pioneering efforts in the tropics earned the great admiration of her colleagues and led to her selection as UCLA Medical Auxiliary Woman of Science Award (1963), and weighed heavily in selecting Mildred Mathias as one of twelve Women of the Year (1964) by the Los Angeles Times. UCLA Chancellor Franklin D. Murphy called her "one of the great ladies of this campus." Since her early research days, Mildred Mathias appreciated natural areas in California, and that interest grew at UCLA. Her earliest successful conservation effort (1957) helped to establish Rancho Las Tunas in San Gabriel as a state park. She used her influence to save historic oaks, and assumed leadership in the southern California chapter of The Nature Conservancy. For such local achievements, she received the Merit Award of the California Conservation Council (1962) and The Nature Conservancy National Award (1964). During the early 1960s Mildred Mathias, with several other professors, worked diligently to establish the UC Natural Land and Water Reserves System, now called the Natural Reserve System, whereby important parcels of undisturbed California habitats could be acquired and managed by UC for university teaching and research. These visionaries helped this to become a national model for conserving natural ecosystems. She was great at taking people on hikes through natural areas and converting them to the cause, and a personal achievement was her conservation effort on Santa Cruz Island, California. Mildred served as Chair of the university-wide advisory committee for 22 years, and along the way held many other positions of leadership on advisory boards for other conservation programs. In 1963, Mildred Mathias was speaking critically about careless destruction of tropical forests, which are where "many promising drugs from plants are being lost for all time." She turned to the tropics, and became a major conservation voice in the establishment of the Organization for Tropical Studies, formed to obtain protected field sites for conducting scientific research in the tropics. For her dedication, Mildred Mathias was chosen as president of OTS from 1969 to 1970, and was a critical leader during its first ten years of existence, when funding was very precarious. She was the motivator to incorporate botanical gardens of Costa Rica in the master plan for OTS, and helped to formalize Las Cruces Biological Station. Beginning in the mid-1960s, demand for Mildred's time increased dramatically as she willingly and enthusiastically served as an officer for or on advisory boards of numerous horticultural programs. She once wrote, "life is a series of intermittent meetings." But from those long hours in board rooms and airplane cabins came many achievements in horticulture. Among awards, she received the American Horticultural Society Scientific Citation (1974), the Award of Merit by the American Association of Botanical Gardens and Arboreta (1976), the Liberty Hyde Bailey Medal (1980), awarded to an outstanding horticulturist who has made a contribution in the fields of research and education, the Medal of Honor from the Garden Club of America (1982), and the Charles Lawrence Hutchinson Medal of the Chicago Horticultural Society (1988). At UC her contributions were honored in 1979 by naming the Mildred E. Mathias Botanical Garden on the Westwood campus. She was also the first executive director of the Association of American Botanical Gardens and Arboreta (1977 to 1981), which under her watch created a certification program in horticulture that linked universities with hands-on training at a network of horticultural gardens. Her career of botanical accomplishments led to her receiving the Botanical Society of America Merit Award in 1973 and being elected president in 1984. Similarly, her interests in ethnopharmacology were rewarded when in 1993 she was named Distinguished Economic Botanist by the Society of Economic Botany. When she retired in 1974, UCLA Extension persuaded Mildred Mathias to lead a natural history trip to Costa Rica. At that time tours to Costa Rica were mostly limited to a stop in San José and a trip up the volcano, but she led the first group of amateurs into the field for an experience they would value forever. Thereafter, Mildred Mathias had a new career, tour guide for adult education, and her stamina in the field was respected and renowned. Annually she visited Costa Rica and the Peruvian Amazon, and she immersed her adult students in native culture as well as all aspects of tropical biology and geography. Such tours are now a major source of foreign money in the country, so-called "ecotourism". La Selva Biological Station was a standard stop on her tours, and while visiting there Mildred entreated tropical biologists to give lectures to the adults on current research. Since 1974 she led 53 groups, with a thousand participants, to foreign natural areas, gardens, and musea to more than 30 countries. Her most recent tour, at the age of 88, was in November, 1994, to Chile, and before her death on February 16, 1995, resulting from a stroke suffered gardening at home in Westwood, she had scheduled group trips again to Costa Rica and the Amazon in 1995. Many organizations-national, statewide, local, and campus--that now are very successful and important have credited Mildred Mathias as having played pivotal leadership roles in the early years. This is a major reason why she had such a huge and loyal following of admirers. Above that, she befriended all age groups, and welcomed anybody seeking knowledge from her. Mildred Mathias never lost purpose or direction, certainly never lost her enthusiasm and energy, and freely expressed her appreciation for humor in any situation. This very special person left a remarkable legacy of botanical and conservation achievements and a wide trail of friendships around the globe." (From the website of the Mildred E. Mathias Botanical Garden at UCLA) (ref. Eryngium mathiasiae)
  
• Matricar'ia: from the Latin matrix, "the womb," the plant once having been used as a cure for female disorders (ref. genus Matricaria)
• matricario'ides: like genus Matricaria, the false chamomile (ref. Matricaria matricarioides, literally the Matricaria that looks like Matricaria)
• matrona'lis: relating to March 1st, the Roman festival of the matrons or married ladies (ref. Hesperis matronalis)
• mat'thewsii/matthews'ii: after Dr. Washington Matthews (1843-1905) of the US Army who was stationed in the Owens Valley of California in 1875 (ref. Galium matthewsii, Loeselastrium matthewsii)
• Matthio'la: named after Pietro (Pier) Andrea Gregorio Mattioli (1500?-1577), an Italian physician and naturalist. He received an M.D. from the University of Padua in 1523 and was physician to Maximilian II and Ferdinand I of Austria (ref. genus Matthiola)
• Maurandel'la: the diminutive of Maurandya (ref. genus Maurandella)
• Maurand'ya: after Dr. Catalina Pancratia (Pancracia) Maurandy, an 18th-century botany professor at Cartagena, Spain, married to Agustín Juan Y Poveda, the Director of the Cartagena Botanic Garden (ref. genus Maurandya)
• mauritan'ica: of or from Mauritania, or more generally of North Africa, particularly Morocco (ref. Ampelodesmos mauritanica)
• mauritian'um: while this name often means "relating to Mauritius in the Indian Ocean," it is uncertain how it was chosen for this species since S. mauritianum is a native of tropical South America. It is possible that the author, Giovanni Antonio Scopoli (1723-1788), was mistaken as to its country of origin. There is a genus Mauritia in South America, but that may be coincidental. The suffix 'anum' or 'anus' is also used sometimes to convert a personal name to an adjectival commemorative epithet to be attached to a generic name that is masculine in gender, and that may have been the case here. Anyone with any more definitive information about this is invited to contact me (ref. Solanum mauritianum)
• max'ima/max'imum: largest (ref. Briza maxima, Heuchera maxima, Lithophragma maximum, Leucanthemum maximum)
• maximilia'ni: after Maximilian Alexander Philipp von Wied-Neuwied (1782-1867) (ref. Helianthus maximiliani)
• May'tenus: derived from maiten, mayten or mayton, a Chilean (Araucan) name for the type species Maytenus boaria (ref. genus Maytenus)
• mearns'ii: after Army surgeon and naturalist Edgar Alexander Mearns (1856-1916). "He developed an early interest in natural history, studying the flora and fauna around his home in Highland Falls, New York. Mearns was educated at Donald Highland Institute, Highland Falls, and in 1881 graduated from the College of Physicians and Surgeons of New York. In 1883, he was commissioned assistant surgeon in the Medical Corps of the Army and assigned to duty at Fort Verde, Arizona. He was transferred to Fort Snelling, Minnesota, in 1888. In 1891, Mearns was assigned to serve as medical officer with the United States-Mexican International Boundary Survey. From 1892 to 1894, Mearns explored the boundary line from El Paso, Texas, to San Clemente Island and collected 30,000 specimens of flora and fauna which were deposited in the United States National Museum (USNM). From 1894 to 1903, Mearns continued his natural history investigations while stationed at Fort Myer, Virginia; Fort Clark, Texas; Fort Adams, Rhode Island; and Fort Yellowstone. He also conducted field research in the Catskill Mountains and Florida during this period. Between 1903 and 1907, Mearns served two separate tours of duty in the Philippine Islands. While in the Philippines he made natural history collections and participated in expeditions to the three highest mountains in the islands, Mount Apo, Grand Malindang, and Mount Halcon. After returning to the United States, Mearns served at Fort Totten, New York, until his retirement from the Army on January 1, 1909. Later in that year, he was invited by Theodore Roosevelt to accompany the Smithsonian-Roosevelt African Expedition as naturalist. From 1909 to 1910, Mearns explored parts of British East Africa from Mount Kenia to the White Nile. Mearns' last expedition was in 1911, when he served as a naturalist with the Childs Frick Expedition to Africa. Mearns' primary biological interests were ornithology and mammalogy. He was a founding member of the American Ornithologists Union and in 1909 was appointed honorary associate in zoology of the USNM." (from a website of the Smithsonian Institution) (ref. Acacia mearnsii)
• Meconel'la: from the Greek mekon, "poppy," and ella, a diminutive, therefore meaning "little poppy" (ref. genus Meconella)
• me'dia/me'dium: meaning "the middle," because the plant is midway between two others with regard to some identifying characteristic such as size (ref. Antennaria media, Stellaria media, Apocynum medium)
• Medica'go: derived from Medike, or medick, the Greek name for alfalfa, which came to Greece from Medea (ref. genus Medicago)
• mediomonta'na: from the Latin medius, "middle," and montana, "pertaining to mountains" (ref. Gilia capitata ssp. mediomontana)
• me'dius: intermediate, in the middle (ref. Ceanothus foliosus var. medius)
• megacar'pus: large-fruited (ref. Ceanothus megacarpus)
• megaceph'ala: big-headed
• megaloceph'ala: big-headed (ref. Perityle megalocephala)
• megalopet'ala: with large petals (ref. Ivesia lycopodioides ssp. megalopetala)
• megapotam'icum: from the Greek megas, "big or great," potamos, "river," and the adjectival suffix -icum, denoting a state of belonging to (ref. Thelesperma megapotamicum)
• megarhi'za: big-rooted (ref. Claytonia megarhiza)
• meionan'thus: from the Greek meion, "less, smaller, fewer," and anthos, "flower" (ref. Lupinus argenteus var. meionanthus)
• Melaleu'ca: from the Greek melas, "black," and leukos, "white," an apparent allusion to the black trunks and white branches of some species (ref. genus Melaleuca)
• melanaden'ia: I haven't found any specific reference to the meaning of this name, but presumably it is from the Latin melas, "black," and aden, "gland," which is kind of odd because one of the common names for this taxon is red-gland spurge (ref. Chamaesyce melanadenia)
• melanocar'pa: black-fruited (ref. Sambucus melanocarpa)
• melanop'sis: from melas, "black," and -opsis, "resembling," this taxon's common name in the Jepson Manual is dusky willow (ref. Salix melanopsis)
• melanox'ylon: black-wooded, from the Greek melas, "black," and xylon, "wood" (ref. Acacia melanoxylon)
• Me'lia: from melia, the classical name used by Theophrastus for the flowering ash because of the similarity of the leaves (ref. genus Melia)
• Mel'ica: from the Greek name melike deriving from mel, "honey," and applied to a kind of sorghum or other plant with sweet sap (ref. genus Melica)
• Melilo'tus: from the Greek words meli, "honey," and lotos, a leguminous plant (ref. genus Melilotus)
• Melis'sa: from the Greek melissa for "a honeybee, bee, honey. " Melissa was reportedly a nymph who was supposed to have invented the art of beekeeping. This taxon is one of those commonly called bee balm (ref. Melissia officinalis)
• meliten'sis: of or from Malta (ref. Centaurea melitensis)
• mellif'era: honey-bearing (ref. Salvia mellifera)
• melli'ta: honey-sweet (ref. Navarretia mellita)
• me'lo: from the Latin melo, a shorted form of melopepo, an apple-shaped melon (ref. Cucumis melo)
• melofor'mis: melon-shaped
• melonop'sis: possibly meaning having a resemblance to an apple or other melon-like fruit (ref. Salix melonopsis)
• membrana'cea/membrana'ceum:  skin-like, membranous  (ref. Chorizanthe membranacea, Eriogonum wrightii var. membranaceum, Pholistoma membranaceum)
• mendocinoen'sis: same as following entry (ref. Arctostaphylos mendocinoensis, Carex mendocinensis)
• mendocin'us: of or from Mendocino County, California (ref. Arctostaphylos mendocinoensis)
• Menodor'a: from the Greek menos, "force," and doron, "gift"; Jepson: "perhaps half-moon spear from appearance of fruit on stiff pedicel" (doro in Greek can also mean "spear"). David Hollombe provides the following which seems to confirm the former derivation: "Menodora is explained in the original description as "giving force" or vigor to the cattle, sheep and mules that ate the young shoots of Menodora helianthemoides (ref. genus Menodora)
• mensan'us: from the Latin mensa, "a table," and the suffix -anus indicating position or location, in this case referring to a table mountain or mesa as this taxon's preferred locale (ref. Astragalus atratus var. mensanus)
• mensico'la: dwelling on table mountains or mesas, and in this case named due to the type location of Pinyon Mesa in Inyo County (ref. Eriogonum mensicola)
• Men'tha: a Latin name for an unfortunate Greek nymph named Mentha who got herself turned into a mint plant, and a genus of culinary herbs named after her, this is one of the oldest plant names still in use (ref. genus Mentha)
• menthifo'lia: with leaves like those of genus Mentha (ref. Verbena menthifolia)
• Mentze'lia: named for Christian Mentzel or Christianus Mentzelius (1622-1701), a 17th century German botanist, philologist, botanical author, personal physician to the Elector of Brandenburg, and father of the first King of Prussia. Among his works were Index nominum plantarum universalis multilinguis (1682) and Sylloge minutiarum lexici latino-sinico-characteristici (A Chinese-Latin dictionary, 1685). He also compiled the never-published Flora Japonica based on pictures and paintings of Japanese plants sent to him by his friend Andreas Cleyer (ref. genus Mentzelia)
• Menyan'thes: according to Umberto Quattrocchi, Menyanthos was a classical Greek name for a water plant and he suggests that the derivation is either from mene, "moon, crescent moon" and anthos, "flower," or from minyos, "small, tiny" and anthos (ref. Menyanthes)
• Menzies'ia/menzies'ii/men'ziesii: named after Archibald Menzies (1754-1842), Scottish botanist and surgeon.  The following sketch is from the Mediterranean Gardening Society:  "Archibald Menzies was born in 1754 at Styx, an old branch house of the Menzies of Culdares near Perthshire in Scotland.  Nearly all of the Menzies in the vicinity of Castle Menzies were either gardeners or botanists; an old record shows that seven of this name were employed at the same time at the Castle gardens.  It was here that Archibald Menzies received his first lessons in botany, and where he later added new varieties of trees discovered during his travels.  Menzies studied both botany and medicine in Edinburgh, and later became assistant to a surgeon in Carnarvon.  He entered the Royal Navy and served on the Halifax Station in Nova Scotia.  'He has been several years on the Halifax Station in His Majesty's service as a surgeon, where he has paid unremitting attention to his favourite study of botany, and through the indulgence of the Commander-in-Chief had good opportunities afforded him,' stated a 1786 letter of introduction to Sir Joseph Banks of Kew Gardens.  [It appears that Menzies was another one of the many botanists who benefited from the influence of the great British naturalist.]  Menzies was delighted to be appointed surgeon to an expedition around Cape Horn to the North Pacific with the ship Prince of Wales, a voyage which took nearly three years.  He sent back plants and brought home a ship's company in good health.  Menzies had attained some fame as a botanist, and was appointed by the British Government in 1790 as naturalist to accompany Captain Vancouver in the Discovery on a voyage around the world [1791-1795].  When the surgeon aboard the Discovery became ill and was sent home, Menzies was appointed in his place.  Captain Vancouver commended his services, stating in the preface to his journal of the voyage that not one man died of ill health under his care.  Menzies' formal instructions for the voyage were detailed and extensive.  He was to investigate the whole of the natural history of the countries visited, enumerate all trees, shrubs, plants, grasses, ferns and mosses by their scientific names as well as the language of the natives, and in view of the prospect of sending out settlers from England, ascertain whether plants cultivated in Europe were likely to thrive.  He was to dry specimens and collect seeds, and any curious or valuable plants that could not be propagated from seeds were to be dug up and planted in the glass frame provided for the purpose aboard Discovery.  Menzies was charged with keeping a regular journal of all occurrences, together with a complete collection of specimens of animals, vegetables and minerals, as well as clothes, arms, implements and manufactures of the native peoples.  Menzies' work on the voyage was considered by the government as one of the most important objectives of the expedition. Captain Vancouver and Menzies were usually on good terms, although some conflicts arose.  The welfare of the plants in the glazed frame on the quarter deck once induced such a heated dispute that Vancouver threatened to have Menzies court-martialled.  [Banks had warned Menzies about Captain Vancouver, with whom he had sailed on Captain Cook's first Pacific voyage, and specifically about his prickly nature.  On the last leg of their return journey to England, some of the ondeck plant frames were left uncovered and many of the plants contained therein were damaged or destroyed.  Menzies wanted Captain Vancouver to punish the man responsible, and apparently spoke to Vancouver in what the Captain considered to be an insolent and disrespectful manner.  A month later, after receiving an apology from Menzies, Vancouver withdrew his charges.]  After the voyage of the Discovery, Menzies served with the Navy in the West Indies.  He received the degree of M.D. at Aberdeen University in 1799, and upon retiring from the Navy followed his profession of doctor and surgeon at Notting Hill, London.  Menzies died in 1842 at the age of 88. Genial of disposition and painstakingly thorough in his work, Archibald Menzies was held in high regard throughout his long life."  One of Menzies' more curious finds resulted from a dinner while in Chile, during which he was introduced to some nuts which he was unable to identify.  He placed some in his pocket and several sprouted on the voyage home.  It was thus that the monkey puzzle tree Araucaria araucana came to be introduced into Europe.  A tree seen before by visiting naturalists from offshore in the American Northwest is what has come to be known as Pseudotsuga menziesii or the Douglas-fir, samples of which were first collected by Menzies on the island which bears the name of Captain Vancouver.  This species is not a true fir, but a distinct species, and bears the name of the Scottish botanist David Douglas who identified it in 1826.  Menzies collected thousands of specimens but it was not always with the assistance of Captain Vancouver who apparently sometimes confined Menzies to the ship when he sent other sailors ashore.  However, Menzies arranged to have specimens smuggled on board.  His large collection may be seen today at The Linnaean Society in London (ref. genus Menziesia, also Amsinckia menziesii var. intermedia, Amsinckia menziesii var. menziesii, Arbutus menziesii, Chimaphila menziesii, Isocoma menziesii var. menziesii, Isocoma menziesii var. vernonioides, Nemophila menziesii var. integrifolia, Nemophila menziesii var. menziesii, Ribes menziesii, Silene menziesii)
• mephit'icus: possibly from the Latin mephitis, "bad odor" (ref. Mimulus nanus var. mephiticus)
• Mercuria'lis: named after Mercury, the Roman messenger god, called Hermes by the Greeks (ref. genus Mercurialis)
• meria'na: after Maria Sibylla Merian (1647-1717). The following is quoted from a website of Memorial Library at University of Wisconsin-Madison: "Born in Frankfurt to an etcher and book publisher father who died when she was three, Maria Sibylla Merian first studied flower painting with her step-father, Jacob Marrel. She married in 1665 and began her own botanical and entomological work after she and her family moved to Nuremberg in 1670. To facilitate her studies, Merian raised and kept live specimens and was therefore able to show the insects at each stage of their develop-
  ment. Merian left her husband in 1685 and with her children joined a Labadist sect in Frankfurt. In 1699 she traveled with her daughter Dorothea to a Labadist mission in Surinam where she completed a series of paintings detailing the tropical flora and fauna. After a bout with yellow fever, she moved to Amsterdam in 1705 and published a series of engravings from her watercolors in Metamorphosis Insectorum Surinamensium. Merian died in poverty in 1717." (ref. Watsonia meriana)
• meridiona'le/meridiona'lis: flowering at mid-day (ref. Eriofonum douglasii var. meridionale)
• me'ris: a part, as in "five-merous" or having five parts
• meri'ta: having parts (ref. Eurybia merita)
• merriam'ii: after Clinton Hart Merriam (1855-1942), founder and chief of the U.S. Bureau of Biological Survey, and originator of the Life Zones concept of plant communities in the 1890's. In 1891 he conducted the first in a series of biological surveys of the West, crisscrossing the Death Valley region, his goal being to define life zones that could be used to assess the suitability of land for farming and ranching. In 1898 he led the U.S. Biological Survey to Mount Shasta to study its geology, mammals, birds and plants, and collected with the likes of Alice Eastwood, Vernon Bailey, and Edward Lee Greene. He was interested in comparing the specimens from Mount Shasta with those he had collected in the Southern Cascades and the Sierra Nevada, something which contributed to his understanding of elevational life zones for plants. Five of Merriam's seven Life Zones occurred on or near Mt. Shasta (ref. Arctomecon merriamii)
• Merten'sia: named by A.W. Roth in honor of German botanist Franz Karl Mertens (1764-1831). "Franz Carl [Karl] Mertens was born on 3 April 1764 in Bielefeld and died in Bremen 19 June 1831. His father, Clamor Mertens, was the only son of a distinguished but impoverished noble family. Because there was no money to send Franz Carl to school, he was taught at home by his father, but his mother was determined that Franz Carl would attend classes to prepare him to enter a university. Through her efforts with various city officials, she was able to arrange that Franz Carl take classes with the son of an official. Once given the opportunity, Mertens' intelligence and industriousness attracted the attention of individuals able to guide and assist him with the financing of his education. He studied theology and language at the University of Halle and was offered a teaching position at Bremen Polytechnic College. His days were taken up with lessons and preparing class lectures, but he devoted every spare minute to his main interest - the study of botany. Through a friend he met Albrecht Wilhelm Roth (1757-1834), German physician and botanist at Oldenburg. Mertens and Roth went on collecting trips together, and Mertens described a number of algal species and illustrated all of the algae in the third volume of Roth's Catalecta botanica (1806). Mertens travelled throughout Europe and Scandinavia visiting botanists and gardens. He exchanged letters and specimens with many notable natural scientists." [from the Bulletin of the Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation, Vol. 11, No. 1 (spring 1999)] It was in 1961 that Dr. Mildred Mathias of UCLA learned that a collection of these letters was in the possession of ancestors of Mertens who by coincidence lived in Los Angeles, and in April 1962, the Mertens collection was purchased by Mr. and Mrs. Roy A. Hunt and deposited in the Archives of the Hunt Botanical Library (ref. genus Mertensia)
• mertensia'na: after Karl Heinrich Mertens (1796-1830), German botanist and naturalist, and son of Franz Karl Mertens (see Mertensia above). K.H. Mertens was a member of the crew of the Russian sloop of war Senyavin under Captain Lieutenant Fedor Petrovich Litke on a voyage to explore the coasts of Russian America and Asia. "Litke's voyage in Senyavin was among the most productive voyages of discovery sent out by any country in the nineteenth century. In addition to the survey work on the Asian coast, the expedition discovered twelve island groups and described another twenty-six in the Carolines. Experiments with an invariable pendulum enabled the company to determine the degree to which the earth flattens at the poles. Naturalist Karl Heinrich Mertens, ornithologist Baron von Kittlitz, and mineralogist Alexander Postels described over 1,000 new species of insects, fish, birds, and other animals, and more than 2,500 different types of plants, algae, and rocks. In addition, they also collected ethnographic artifacts and made more than 1,250 sketches of their findings. Shortly after the conclusion of the voyage, Senyavin was dispatched on a second scientific expedition to Iceland, again under Litke. The expedition's chief scientist Mertens died two weeks after the ship's return to Kronstadt in September, 1830." (from Ships of the World: An Historic Encyclopedia) Mertens also discovered the hemlock named for him (Tsuga mertensiana) at Sitka, Alaska in 1827. He collected plants in France, Germany, Italy, Hungary, North America, the Pacific Islands and South Africa (ref. Cassiope mertensiana, Corallorhiza mertensiana)
• mertensia'nae: see previous entry (ref. Arceuthobium tsugense ssp. mertensianae)
• mer'tensii/mertens'ii: see entry for mertensiana (ref. Carex mertensii)
• Mesembryan'themum: either (1) derived from 2 words: mesos, "middle," and embryon, "fruit," indicating a flower with its fruit in the middle, and/or (2) afternoon-blooming. The original name was Mesembrianthemum, from mesembria or "mid-day"  alluding to the belief that the species only bloomed in the sunlight. After night-blooming species were discovered, the spelling of the name was changed to its current form (ref. genus Mesembryanthemum)
• mesochore'a: presumably from the Greek mesos, "middle, half," and possibly either choreo, "to spread" or choresis, "taking, receiving." Chorea is also Latin for dance derived from the Greek khoreia, and chore is also Greek for to go or withdraw. David Hollombe sent the following: 'middle-country' - a replacement name for Carex mediterranea Mackenzie, not Clarke, referring to 'middle' U.S.A. (from District of Columbia to Kansas), not to 'the' Mediterranean." So this basically means, "from the inland" (ref. Carex mesochorea)
• metelo'ides: indicates a resemblance to the plant Datura metel of India (ref. Datura meteloides)
• mewuk'ka: since the common name of this taxon is Indian manzanita, I suspect that this may be a Native American name. There is a tribe or band of Mewuk Indians who traditionally lived in the Yosemite region and Bridgeport Valley (ref. Arctostaphylos mewukka)
• mexica'na/mexica'num/mexican'us: of or from Mexico (ref. Hulsea mexicana, Purshia mexicana var. stansburyana, Salazaria mexicana, Sambucus mexicana, Fremontodendron mexicanum, Juncus mexicanus)