R

                  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.

• racemo'sa/racemo'sum: with flowers in racemes (ref. Cryptantha racemosa, Platanus racemosa, Pyrrocoma [formerly Haplopappus] racemosa, Sambucus racemosa var. microbotrys, Smilacina racemosa, Eriogonum racemosum, Gayophytum racemosum, Pholistoma racemosum)
• ra'dians: radiating outward (ref. Navarretia nigelliformis ssp. radians)
• radia'ta/radia'tum: spreading out like rays, usually the petals of florets (ref. Madia radiata, Swertia radiata, Sedum radiatum)
• rad'icans: with rooting stems
• radica'ta: having conspicuous roots (ref. Hypochaeris radicata)
• raduli'na/radulin'us: probably from the same root as radula, "a scraper, rasp or file," from the scabrous leaves (ref. Eurybia radulina, Aster radulinus)
• Rafines'quia: named for Constantine Samuel Rafinesque-Schmaltz (1783-1840), a 19th century botanist and friend of James J. Audubon. The following is quoted from Wikipedia online: "[Rafinesque was] a nineteenth-century polymath who led a chaotic life. Many would call him a genius, but also an eccentric, sometimes close to insanity. He was very successful in various fields of knowledge; zoologist, botanist, malacologist, meteorologist, writer, evolutionist, polyglot, translator. He wrote prolifically on such diverse topics as anthropology, biology, geology, and linguistics; but was honored in none during his lifetime. Today, it is generally recognized that this genius was far ahead of his time. Rafinesque was born in Galata, a suburb of Constantinople. He spent his youth in Marseilles, France and was mostly self-educated. By the age of twelve, he knew Latin and had built a herbarium. At the age of nineteen, he went to America but in 1805 left again to Palermo, Sicily, where he became a successful businessman, mostly in the trade of medicinal plants. He was also secretary to the American consul. During his stay, he collected flowers and took an interest in fish, naming a few. In 1815, after his common-law wife left him and his son (named after Carolus Linnaeus) had died, he returned to America. He lost all his books (50 boxes) and all his specimens, with more than 60,000 shells, when the ship foundered near the coast of Connecticut. In New York he became a member of the newly established "Lyceum of Natural History". By 1818, he had collected and named more than 250 new species of plants and animals. Slowly he was rebuilding his collection of objects from nature. In 1819 he became professor of botany at Transylvania University, Lexington (Kentucky), teaching French and Italian as well. He started at once describing all the new species of plants and animals he encountered. In 1825 his book Neogenyton, drew much criticism from fellow botanists, causing his writing further to be ignored. In the spring of 1826 he was dismissed from the university, for either having an apparent affair with the university president's wife or for attending even fewer classes than his students. He left for Philadelphia without employment. He gave public lectures and started publishing again, mostly at his own expense. His book Medical Flora, a manual of the Medical Botany of the United States of North America (1828-1830) became his most important work. In Herbarium rafinesquianum, he described numerous new plants. He also became interested in the collections of Lewis and Clark. Among them, he gave a scientific name to the Black-tailed Prairie Dog (Cynomys ludovicianus), the White-footed Mouse (Peromyscus leucopus) and the Mule Deer (Odocoileus hemionus). In the books he published between 1836 and 1838 he proposed hundreds of new genera and thousands of new species. However most of these names were not accepted by the scientific community. He even discovered an unnamed bat in John J. Audubon's house no less. He developed a theory of evolution much earlier than Darwin. In 1836 he also created a 19th century hoax, when claiming, in a document "Walam Olum," to be able to translate the writings of the early Delaware Indians. He died of stomach cancer unnoticed and penniless in an attic in Philadelphia. He was buried there at Ronaldson's cemetery. His considerable collections were sold as junk or destroyed. In 1924 his remains (or what was thought to have been his remains) were brought back to Transylvania University to rest in a place of honor, in a tomb marked by the epitaph 'A life of travels'. But most likely, Rafinesque lies in an unmarked grave in Philadelphia. In 1841 Thomas Nuttall proposed, in his honor, the genus name Rafinesquia, (family Asteraceae), with two species Rafinesquia californica Nutt. (California Plumeseed, California Chicory) and Rafinesquia neomexicana A.Gray (Desert Chicory, Plumeseed). Rafinesque himself had proposed this name twice, but was each time turned down. Asa Gray named in 1853 the second species. His scientific work has been gaining more and more recognition in recent years. He was an overly enthusiastic, but accurate observer driven by a monomaniacal desire to name every object he encountered in nature." (ref. genus Rafinesquia)
• raich'ei: after Roger Raiche (1952- ), California field botanist and horticulturist, and co-founder with David McCrory of Planet Horticulture Garden Design (ref. Arctostaphylos stanfordiana ssp. raichei, Calochortus raichei, Clarkia concinna ssp. raichei)
• Raillardel'la: a diminutive of Raillardia, a shrubby genus of Hawaii, named after Laurent Railliard, born in 1792 in Dax, a midshipman then ensign on the scientific circumnavigation voyage of Louis de Freycinet in 1817-1820. He rose to at least the rank of Capitaine de corvette, or "Corvette Captain," the equivalent of a lieutenant commander. Botanical collections were made by Charles Gaudichaud-Beaupré and it's possible this is where Railliard began his interest in botany (ref. genus Raillardella)
• Raillardiop'sis: like genus Raillardia, same derivation as above (ref. genus Raillardiopsis)
• ram'mii: after Charles Adolph Ramm (1863-1951). The following is quoted from the San Francisco Chronicle: "Charles A. Ramm, Medalist of the State University in 1884, has gone to Baltimore to study for the priesthood in the Roman Catholic Church. He was born of German Lutheran parentage. He was educated as a civil engineer, for which profession he evinced a decided talent, taking a degree from the College of Civil Engineering. As a student at Berkeley he was a fast friend of the Rev. Edward L. Greene, Rector of St. Mark's Episcopal Church, of which he was a faithful attendant. Upon graduation he did not follow his profession, but was appointed Recorder of the University. On Easter, 1886, in company with Rev. Mr. Greene, whose difficulties with his parish have been aired in the courts and public prints, Mr. Ramm was baptized at St. Mary's Cathedral. Mr. Greene, who is now assistant professor of botany in the State University, it is stated, is also preparing for the Roman Catholic priesthood. Mr. Ramm will enter the theological seminary of St. Sulpice." And from American Catholic Who's Who: "Ramm, Rev. Charles A. Secretary to Archbishop Riordan of San Francisco, California; born in Camptonville, California, 1863; attended the public schools and Berkeley Gymnasium, the University of California and Johns Hopkins University; received the degree of Ph.B. [Bachelor of Philosophy] from the University of California, 1884; M.A. (1889) and S.T.B. [Bachelor of Sacred Theology] (1891) from St. Mary's Seminary; LL.D. (honorary) from the University of Nevada, 1908; appointed a member of the State Board of Charities and Corrections in 1906. Is much in demand as a lecturer. His lecture, "Why I Became a Catholic," was published by the Catholic Truth Association. Entered the Catholic Church 1886. Address."
  David Hollombe adds: "Ramm was a regent of the University of California, 1912-1944. He was ordained in 1892, elevated to Papal Chamberlain in 1918, and elevated to Domestic Prelate in 1919." (ref. Madia rammii)
• ramo'sa/ramo'sus: branched (ref. Eschscholzia ramosa, Tragia ramosa, Cordylanthus ramosus)
• ramo'sior: from the Latin ramus, "a branch," and the -ior suffix indicating "more," thus "more branched" (ref. Rotala ramosior)
• ramosis'sima/ramosis'simum/ramosis'simus: very branched (ref. Coleogyne ramosissima, Hemizonia ramosissima, Lagophylla ramosissima ssp. ramosissima, Opuntia ramosissima, Phacelia ramosissima var. latifolia, Phacelia ramossisima var. ramossisima, Psathyrotes ramosissima, Tamarix ramosissima, Cardionema ramosissimum, Gayophytum ramosissimum, Gnaphalium ramosissimum, Lepidium ramosissimum, Polygonum ramosissimum, Nemacladus ramosissimus)
• ramulo'sa: Harris and Harris's Plant Identification Terminology says that 'ramulose' is the same as 'ramose,' that is, "with many branches," and Jaeger gives the derivation as from ramulosus, "full of branches." However, with other words such as 'strigulosa,' 'lanulosa,' 'spinulosa' and 'tomentulosa,' the suffix -ulosa has a sense of "slightly or minutely," so perhaps this would more correctly mean "slightly branched." On the other hand, people apply names and use forms of names with different things in mind, so this is not certain (ref. Lessingia ramulosa)
• ranuncula'cea: resembling a Ranunculus (ref. Sidalcea ranunculacea)
• ranunculo'ides: like genus Ranunculus (ref. Hydrocotyle ranunculoides)
• Ranun'culus: from the Latin rana, "little frog," because many species tend to grow in moist places (ref. genus Ranunculus)
• ra'pa: an old Italian name for turnips (ref. Brassica rapa)
• rapa'ceus: relating somehow to turnips
• Raph'anus: from the Greek raphanos for "quick-appearing" because of the rapid germination of the seeds (ref. genus Raphanus)
• Rapis'trum: from the Greek rhapis, "rape," and astrum, "appearance" (ref. genus Rapistrum)
• rariflor'um: with scattered flowers (ref. Heterocodon rariflorum)
• Rati'bida: a name used by C.S. Rafinesque. David Hollombe sent me the following: "Rafinesque's brief description in a paper in 'Journal de physique, de chimie et d'histoire naturelle et des arts' in 1819 mentions the rays as being bifid, although that explanation does not account for the 't'." Rafinesque often assigned unexplained names to plants. It is curious that about 60 sites online use the spelling Ratidiba rather than Ratibida (ref. genus Ratibida)
• rat'tanii/rattan'ii: after Volney Rattan (1840-1915), botanist, plant collector and schoolteacher at the State Normal School in San Jose, California, author of A Popular California Flora (1882), Flora Franciscana (1891-1897) and West Coast Botany: an analytical key to the flora of the Pacific Coast (1898). A website of the State Normal School gives the following thumbnail sketch: "Native of Wisconsin. Educated in public schools and State University of Wisconsin. Taught in public schools of Wisconsin, two years; country schools in California, five years; San José Institute, two years; Oakland Military Academy, three years; Principal of Santa Cruz schools, one and a half years; teacher of natural science in Girls' High School, San Francisco, thirteen years; teacher in Normal School since January, 1889. Specialties, botany and geography. Married September, 1872. Two children." (ref. Astragalus rattanii, Chamaesyce ocellata ssp. rattanii, Collinsia rattanii, Leptosiphon rattanii, Mimulus rattanii, Penstemon rattanii, Phacelia rattanii)
• ra'venii: after Peter Raven, a leading advocate for the preservation of biodiversity and the global ecosystem, Director of the Missouri Botanical Garden for the past 30 years, President of the American Association for theAdvancement of Science, Engelmann Professor of Botany at Washington University, co-editor of Flora of China, a joint Chinese-American project to describe all the plants of China, author of Origin and Relationships of the California Flora with Daniel Axelrod, Biology of Plants with Ray Evert and Susan Eichhorn, Native Shrubs of Southern California, and Flora of the Santa Monica Mountains with Henry Thompson and Barry Prigge. Raven is typical of contemporary botanists who spend more time in laboratories and boardrooms than in the field, but his ambitious goal is to try to save some of the hundreds of thousands of plant species that he believes will disappear because of habitat loss (ref. Arctostaphylos hookeri ssp. ravenii, Astragalus ravenii, Lomatium ravenii)
• raven'nae: after the city of Ravenna which once served as the seat of the Roman Empire (ref. Saccharum ravennae)
• rawsonia'na: after Lucy Adeline Briggs (Mrs. James Cole, Mrs. Julius Addison Rawson, Mrs. Thadeus Edgar Peckinpah, Mrs. James Knight Smallman) (1840-1920), an artist who lived in California and was known for her botanical studies, landscapes and portraits. Lucy was born in Middleboro, Massachusetts, 25 August, 1840. She married James Cole at New Bedford, Massachusetts, 6 March, 1860 and Julius Addison Rawson at San Francisco, 17 November, 1863, and then had two subsequent husbands. Her only child died from a congenital heart defect at age three days on 24 Oct. 18. (ref. Collomia rawsoniana)
• ray'noldsii: after mapmaker William Frank Raynolds (1820-1894) whose career was spent in the topographic section of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and who explored the headwaters of the Missouri and Yellowstone Rivers with Jim Bridger in 1859-1860, mapping the country and collecting fossils (ref. Carex raynoldsii)
• rec'ta: see rectum/rectus below (ref. Potentilla recta)
• rectispi'na: with erect or ascending spines (ref. Chorizanthe rectispina)
• rectis'sima: very upright (ref. Arabis rectissima var. rectissima)
• rec'tum/rec'tus: upright (ref. Eriogonum deflexum var. rectum)
• recurva'ta/recurva'tum: curved backwards (ref. Cryptantha recurvata, Pectocarya recurvata, Delphinium recurvatum)
• recurvifo'lius: with recurved leaves (ref. Calochortus clavatus ssp. recurvifolius)
• recur'vus: bent over and downwards
• reddingia'num: after Benjamin Barnard Redding (1824-1882), sometimes spelled Reltding. The following is quoted from an entry on Redding in the online Virtual American Biographies: "Redding, Benjamin Barnard, pioneer, born in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, 17 January, 1824; died in San Francisco, California, 21 August, 1882. He was educated at Yarmouth Academy, and in 1840 went to Boston, where he became a clerk and afterward entered the grocery and ship-chandlery business. In 1849 he organized a company of men who sailed from Yarmouth for California, where they arrived on 12 May, 1850. He went to the Yuba River diggings, and afterward to the Pittsburg bar, working as a laborer. Subsequently he was employed in drawing papers for the sale of claims, acted as arbitrator, was elected a member of the assembly from Yuba and Sierra counties, and during the session wrote for the San Joaquin Republican and the Sacramento Democratic State Journal, of which he was an editor and proprietor. In 1856 he was Mayor of Sacramento, and from 1863 till 1867 he was Secretary of State. From 1864 until his death he was land agent of the Central Pacific railroad. Mr. Redding was a regent of the University of California, and a member of the California Academy of Sciences, and of the Geographical Society of the Pacific. He was also a state fish commissioner, holding this office at the time of his death. He was interested in all scientific work, especially in the paleontology of the coast, and collected numerous prehistoric and aboriginal relics, which he presented to the museum of the academy. He contributed a large number of papers to various California journals." (ref. Eriogonum spergulinum var. reddingianum)
• redivi'va/redivi'vus: restored, brought back to life (ref. Lewisia rediviva, Styrax redivivus)
• redolens: exuding fragrance, scented, aromatic, redolent (ref. Acacia redolens, Dodecatheon redolens)
• redow'skii: after Ivan Redowski (sometimes spelled Redovsky) (1774-1807), born in Lithuania, studied botany and medicine at Leipzig and Konigsberg, employed by Count Alexei Razumovski in his great botanical garden and library at Gorinka, near Moscow, for which he compiled a catalog of the plants. In 1805 he received an appointment as naturalist to travel to China with Count J.A. Golovkin who as Consul was sent with a diplomatic entourage to conduct talks with the Chinese on the determination of boundaries and trade and shipping on the Amur River. When Golovkin turned back after apparently being rebuffed in some fashion, Redovski went on to collect in the Aldan Mountains, the Shantarsky Islands, Sakhalin and Kamchatka, where he died of a sudden illness (ref. Lappula redowskii)
• reduc'tum/reductus: drawn back, reduced, made small (ref. Chlorogalum purpureum var. reductum, Erigeron reductus)
• reflex'a: bent sharply backwards (ref. Mentzelia reflexa)
• refrac'ta/refrac'tus: broken (ref. Camissonia refracta, Wislizenia refracta, Pleuropogon refractus)
• refugioen'sis: no doubt after a place name, for what I'm not sure as there is at least a Refugio Road, a Refugio Bay, and a Refugio Canyon in the Santa Ynez Valley where this taxon is reportedly located (ref. Arctostaphylos refugioensis)
• re'gelii/regel'ii: after Eduard August von Regel (1815-1892), Director of the botanic garden in St. Petersburg, Russia. He was trained as gardener in Gotha, Göttingen, Bonn and Berlin, and was the head gardener at the botanical gardens in Zurich from 1842 -1855, also a lecturer at the university. He became the director of the botanical gardens in St. Petersburg in 1855. He was the founder of the Russian Horticulture Association and published the "Gartenflora". Numerous gardening publications and botanical works concerning a few plant groups (in particular Betulaceae, Allium) and the Central Asia flora are attributed to him (ref. Juncus regelii)
• re'gia: royal (ref. Juglans regia)
• regi'nae: of the queen (ref. Strelitzia reginae)
• regiri'vum: from the area of the King's River in the Sierra Nevada foothills near Fresno (ref. Eriogonum nudum var. regirivum)
• regismonta'na: possibly of or from the area of King's Mountain which is near San Francisco where this taxon is reportedly located (ref. Arctostaphylos regismontana)
• Reinward'tia: after Caspar Georg Carl Reinwardt (1773-1854), a professor and founder of the Bogor Botanic Garden, Java (ref. genus Reinwardtia)
• remis'sus: faint
• remotifo'lium: with scattered leaves (ref. Cirsium remotifolium)
• remo'tus: scattered (ref. Pinus remotus)
• renifor'me/renifor'mis: kidney-shaped, alluding to the leaves (ref. Eriogonum reniforme, Synthyris reniformis)
• repan'da/repan'dum: with slightly wavy margins (ref. Arabis repanda)
• re'pens: having creeping and rooting stems (ref. Acroptilon repens, Berberis aquifolium var. repens, Dichondra repens, Ludwigia repens, Rhynchelytrum repens, Trifolium repens)
• repos'tum: possibly meaning "remote" and given because its range is 'remote' from that of L. lucidum (??) (ref. Lomatium repostum)
  
• rep'tans: see repens above (ref. Draba reptans, Sidalcea reptans)
• Rese'da: from the Latin resedare, "to assuage or calm," because of supposed sedative properties (ref. genus Reseda)
• resupina'tum: Stearn says "bent back, put on its back, applied to organs turned upside down by a twist in their support," and Harris and Harris say that resupinate means "upside down due to twisting of the pedicel" (ref. Trifolium resupinatum)
• reticula'ta: net-veined (ref. Celtis reticulata, Viguiera reticulata)
• retino'des: I'm not sure about this one. The -odes suffix indicates resemblance or similarity, but I have found two possible meanings of the root retin. Three other genera whose names begin with "Retin-" (Retiniphyllum, Retinispora, and Retinodendron) are explained by Umberto Quattrocchi as being from the Greek rhetine, "resin," whereas the genus Retispatha (without an 'n') derives from rete or retis, "a net." Jaeger's Source-Book of Biological Names and Terms also gives for retin- a derivation from rhetine. However the Dictionary of Word Roots and Combining Forms gives two meanings for retin-: (1) from the Latin rete/reti, "a net or network;" and (2) from the Greek for pine resin. The original description of Acacia retinodes is based on specimens without fruit or seeds, and seems to mention a netlike arangement of some of the veins of the phyllodes, so this seems to be the likeliest explanation (ref. Acacia retinodes)
• retroflex'a/retroflex'us: reflexed (ref. Carex retroflexa, Alternanthera retroflexus, Amaranthus retroflexus)
• retrofrac'ta: twisted back
• retror'sa/retror'sum: reflexed or turned backwards (ref. Agoseris retrorsa, Geranium retrorsum)
• retu'sum/retu'sus: notched at the tip (ref. Sedum obtusatum ssp. retusum, Trifolium retusum)
• revolu'ta/revolu'tum: rolled back from the margin or apex, revolute (ref. Chamaesyce revoluta, Erythronium revolutum)
• Rhagadio'lus: "crevice-like" from the Greek rhagas or rhagados, "a fissure or crevice," a reference to the strongly folded inner phyllaries (ref. genus Rhagadiolus)
• rhamno'ides: resembling Rhamnus
• Rham'nus: an ancient Greek name for the buckthorn (ref. genus Rhamnus)
• rhizoma'ta: with rhizomes (ref. Poa rhizomata, Sidalcea calycosa var. rhizomata)
• Rhodio'la: a diminutive of the Greek rhodon, "rose," a name used by old herbalists referring to the rose-scented roots of the type species (ref. genus Rhodiola)
• Rhododen'dron: from the Greek rhodos, "rose," and dendron, "tree" (ref. genus Rhododendron)
• rhodosper'ma: red-seeded (ref. Plantago rhodosperma)
• rhodotri'cha: red-haired
• rhoe'as: a Latin name for the common red poppy, probably from rho, "red" (ref. Papaver rhoeas)
• rhombifo'lia: with diamond-shaped leaves (ref. Alnus rhombifolia, Sida rhombifolia)
• rhombipet'ala: with diamond-shaped petals (ref. Eschscholzia rhombipetala)
• rhomboid'ea: diamond-shaped (ref. Clarkia rhomboidea)
• rhothophi'lum: from the Greek rhothos, "a rushing or dashing noise," as of breakers and surf, or rothos, "a torrent," and -philum, in compound words signifying "love of, loving," hence meaning approximately "surf-loving" which is appropriate for this dunes plant (ref. Cirsium rhothophilum)
• Rhus: derived from rhous, an ancient Greek name for Sumac (ref. genus Rhus)
• Rhynchely'trum: from the Greek rhynchos, "horn, beak, snout," and elytron, "sheath, cover, scale, husk," referring to the beaked upper glume in some species (ref. genus Rhynchelytrum)
• Rhynchospo'ra: from the Greek rhynchos, "horn, beak, snout," and spora or sporos, "seed, spore," thus "beaked seed" (ref. genus Rhynchospora)
• Ri'bes: from the Syrian or Kurdish ribas, which was derived from an old Persian word (ref. genus Ribes)
• richardson'ii: this name honors Sir John Richardson (1787-1865), a Scottish naturalist, meteorologist, doctor, cartographer and Arctic explorer.  According to David Hollombe, Geranium richardsonii was a replacement name for Geranium albiflorum Hooker, a species published in Sir William Jackson Hooker's major work, Flora boreali-americana, which came out in two volumes and twelve parts from 1829-1840.  Although the type specimen for G. albiflorum was collected by Thomas Drummnd, Richardson's collections were a major part of the book.  I found the following on Dr. Jim Endersby's excellent website on Joseph Dalton Hooker and is from Leonard Huxley's Life and Letters of JD Hooker:  "Sir John Richardson (knighted 1846) saw much active service as naval surgeon, 1807-15, then returned to Edinburgh and took his M.D., at the same time studying botany and mineralogy.  He was Naturalist to Sir John Franklin on two Arctic expeditions, 1819-22 and 1825-27.  [Only a handful of the original members of Sir John Franklin's first Arctic expedition returned.  John Richardson was one of them.  His journal recounts their journey across the Barren Grounds, providing many details not found in Franklin's own 1823 narrative and raising questions about Franklin's ability as a leader.  Entitled Arctic Ordeal, The Journal of John Richardson, Surgeon-Naturalist with Franklin, 1820-1822, 'His journal made such an outstanding contribution to ornithology, ichthyology, botany, and geology that much of modern Arctic research is founded upon his observations.'  From McGill-Queen's University Press]  For ten years he was head of the Melville Hospital at Chatham, and from 1838 was physician to the Royal Hospital at Haslar, where young naval surgeons awaiting their gazetting to ships were under him.  Again, in 1848-9, he led the expedition in search of Franklin.  [Franklin's third Arctic expedition had begun in 1845 and it eventually became clear that it had been lost with no survivors.  Richardson could not find any remains of the expedition.  He wrote of this in his book Arctic Searching Expedition.]  His second wife, m. 1833, d. 1845, was a niece of Franklin’s. In addition to his works on Polar Zoology and Travel, his special subject was Fishes."  Richardson made accurate surveys of more of the coastline of the Canadian Arctic than any other explorer.  On Franklin's second expedition, Richardson explored to the Coppermine River and Great Slave Lake. The Colorado rubber plant, Hymenoxys richardsonii, discovered by William Jackson Hooker, was named by him in Richardson's honor. His name is also on the Richardson's ground squirrel, Citellus richardsoni, a squirrel of the NorthWest which Richardson first discovered, and on the Richardson Mountains of Canada. Richardson was also the author of the Fauna boreali-americana published from 1829 to 1835, Icones Piscium (1843), the second edition of Yarrell's History of British Fishes (1860) and The Polar Regions (1861). He was an amazing person with eclectic interests in rocks, mammals, fish and plants  (ref. Descurainia richardsonii, Geranium richardsonii, Potamogeton richardsonii)
• richardson'is: see previous entry (ref. Muhlenbergia richardsonis)
• Ric'inus: so named because there is a Mediterranean sheep tick named Ricinus and the seeds of this family resemble a tick (ref. genus Ricinus)
• ri'gens: rigid, stiff (ref. Muhlenbergia rigens)
• rig'ida/rig'idum/rig'idus: rigid, referring to the stiff leaves (ref. Chorizanthe rigida, Dendromecon rigida, Pleuraphis rigida, Rupertia [formerly Psoralea] rigida, Stachys ajugoides var. rigida, Epilobium rigidum, Cordylanthus rigidus ssp. setigerus, Lotus rigidus, Nemacladus rigidus)
• rigidis'sima: very rigid
• rigid'ulum: somewhat rigid (ref. Panicum rigidulum)
• Rigiopap'pus: from the Greek rigios, "stiffened," and pappos, "pappus" (ref. genus Rigiopappus)
• rimico'la: from the Latin rima, "a fissure," and the -cola suffix indicating "a dweller of," this taxon's preferred habitat is granite crevices (ref. Potentilla rimicola)
• rin'gens: gaping, referring to the corolla (ref. Mimulus ringens)
• ripar'ia: of or growing near river banks
• rip'leyi: after Harry Dwight Dillon Ripley (1908-1973), linguist, plant collector, artist and author, born in London, began his plant collecting in Northern Africa and Spain with his friend Rupert Barneby, with whom he attended school at Harrow. The two men moved to California in 1939 and travelled extensively in the western United States and Mexico, collecting plants for their garden and for herbaria. They moved to New York in 1943, again establishing major gardens. Ripley wrote a greart deal about rock gardens and the plants he grew, was fluent in 15 languages and dialects, and was nearing completion of a work entitled Etymological Dictionary of Vernacular Plant Names at the time that he died (ref. Gilia ripleyi)
• riva'lis: growing by streams (ref. Potentilla rivalis)
• rivular'is: growing by streams (ref. Lupinus rivularis)
• rix'fordii: after Gulian Pickering Rixford (1838-1930), botanist, collector and horticulturist among whose interests were the study of fruits like figs and persimmons, and whose collection resides at the California Academy of Sciences.  Rixford was one of those courageous souls who helped Alice Eastwood save valuable botanical specimens by carrying them out of the Academy building after the 1906 earthquake.  "Gulian Pickering Rixford, Honorary Member of the California Avocado Association, ninth recipient of the Meyer Medal awarded by the American Genetic Association for distinguished service in plant introduction, and for over twenty years a faithful employee of and indefatigable worker for the United States Department of Agriculture, was fatally injured in a train accident at Los Altos on Oct. 27, 1930 at the age of ninety years. Mr. Rixford was born at East Highgate, Vermont, on Sep. 21, 1838.  The family moved to Canada in 1850, where young Gulian received his education first at the Academy, Stanbridge East, Province of Quebec, and later at McGill University, Montreal.  He graduated in May, 1864, and soon after graduation married Caroline Corey.  As Provincial Land Surveyor, he worked for an engineering firm for two years, laying out a street railway in Quebec, a railroad from St. Johns, Province of Quebec, to Swanton, Vermont, and a bridge or two, said to be still in service.  In 1867, the Rixford family, including one son, migrated to California via the Isthmus of Nicaragua.  One other son and two daughters were born in California. After a short period of employment in a machine shop, Mr. Rixford accepted a position with the San Francisco Bulletin, serving for twelve years as commercial reporter and editor, and for nine years as business manager.  During this period his interest in horticulture prompted him to offer seeds and cuttings of plants rather than the usual trinkets as premiums for subscriptions to the newspaper.  The introduction of the Smyrna fig, in 1880, is an outstanding monument to his early horticultural achievements, although many other new plants and flowers now commonly grown were brought to California through his efforts.  Mr. Rixford retired from business in 1889, although for several years he was manager of the Inyo Marble Company.  For five years he served as Secretary of the California Academy of Science, and for many years has been a member of its Council. Owing to his active cooperation with horticulturists of the United States Department of Agrticulture, he received, in 1908, a position as Crop Physiologist in the Office of Crop Physiology and Breeding Investigations.  This enabled him to continue his fig studies as well as to carry on work with citrus fruits, pistachio nuts, avocados, passion fruits, dates, and various other subtropical fruits.  Reports of a survey and study of avocado variety adaptations in Central and Northern California were written for the California Avocado Association and the agricultural press during his ninetieth year."  (From An Appreciation in the California Avocado Association Yearbook 1930) (ref. Eriogonum rixfordii, Scopulophila rixfordii)
• rob'binsii: after physician and amateur botanist James Watson Robbins (1801-1879) He received his undergraduate and doctoral degrees from Yale, and collected plants in New England, Virginia, Maryland and near Lake Superior. The study of aquatic phaenogamous plants, especially Potamogeton, was his specialty (ref. Potamogeton robbinsii)
• robertia'num: derives from the medieval Latin name herba roberti after Robertus (Saint Robert), a French ecclesiastic who was the founder of the Carthusians and died in 1067. It has also been suggested that the name relates to [St.?] Rupert, Archbishop of Salszburg who died 717 or to Robert, Duke of Normandy (ref. Geranium robertianum)
• Robin'ia: named for Jean (1550-1629) and Vespasian (1579-1662) Robin of Paris, gardeners to Henri IV and Louis XIII, who first cultivated the locust tree in Europe in the 16th century after receiving plants from Canada (ref. genus Robinia)
• robinson'ii: The following is quoted from the Archives of the Gray Herbarium at Harvard: "Benjamin Lincoln Robinson was born on Nov.8 ,1864, in Bloomington, Ill., the youngest of eight children. He received his early education at home and then attended public schools and Illinois Normal School. He entered Williams College in 1883, but was dissatisfied with the school and left after three months. The following fall he entered Harvard, graduating in 1887. Shortly after graduation he married Margaret Louise Casson, and they traveled to Europe together in the summer of 1887. They settled in Strassburg, where Robinson began graduate studies in Oct. 1887. Robinson received his Ph.D. in Strassburg in 1889 and in 1890 returned to Cambridge, where he became Sereno Watson's assistant at the Gray Herbarium. Upon the death of Watson in 1892, Robinson took over as curator, a post he retained for most of his life. After becoming curator, much of Robinson's energies were directed toward completing work begun by his predecessors and toward improving the physical plant of the herbarium. Robinson took up Watson's work on Gray's Synoptical Flora of North America and had the first two fascicles published in 1895 and 1897, respectively. He continued to work for a while on a third fascicle, but it was never published. With the collaboration of Merritt Lyndon Fernald, Robinson prepared a revised edition of Gray's Manual, which was published in 1908. From about 1900 to 1909 Robinson tried to have a new herbarium building constructed in the general location of the current herbarium; eventually he settled for reconstructing the building at the Botanic Garden. Robinson did much of the design work himself, and the rebuilding took place from 1909-1915. Robinson's main personal research interest was the Eupatorium tribe of the Compositae. Robinson worked on a treatment of the Eupatoriums for Engler's Pflanzenreich, possibly in response to a Dec. 5, 1904, letter from Engler (see Gray Herbarium, Administrative Correspondence File under Engler) requesting a "Tüchtigen Systematiker" at Harvard to work on Eupatorium. The work was never published, as either Robinson or Engler decided that more work had to be done on certain areas of Eupatorium before a satisfactory treatment could be prepared, and monographing Eupatoriums dominated Robinson's research for the rest of his life. Earlier research work included a Flora of the Galapagos Islands, published in 1902, based on the collections of the Hopkins-Standford Expedition. Robinson made a collection trip to Newfoundland in 1894 and collected plants near his summer home in Jaffrey, N.H., but otherwise did not do much collecting. Although he was appointed Asa Gray Professor in 1899, Robinson was not active in teaching. Robinson was involved in a number of scientific organizations, was a founding member of the New England Botanic Club, and served as editor of Rhodora for many years. He took an active role in the discussions of nomenclature that were being carried out in the International Botanical Congresses, and he participated in at least two Congresses that took place in Europe (1905 in Vienna, 1910 in Brussels). He traveled to Europe a half-dozen times, visiting herbaria, making notes and taking photos of specimens, especially of Eupatorium. Robinson spent the last few years of his life in poor health and died on July 27, 1935, at Jaffrey, N.H." (ref. Lepidium virginicum var. robinsonii)
• robison'ii: after botanist and geographer William Condit Robison (1914-1992). Thanks to David Hollombe for the following: "A.B. botany UCLA 1936; M.A. geography Berkeley, 1949; PhD geography, Boston U., 1960; Geographer Quartermaster Corps, U.S. Army, 1951-1962; lecturer in geography, University of New England, Australia 1962-1964; Supervisory geography U.S. Army Natick Labs 1964-1971; Supervisory Geography chief of Geosystems Branch U.S. Army topography labs 1971-; researcher on conservation policy & effects of human activity on vegetation. Collected with Epling and others while at UCLA" (ref. Monardella robisonii)
  
• robus'ta/robus'tum: stout or strong in growth (ref. Camissonia robusta, Grindelia robusta, Sidalcea robusta, Verbena robusta)
• robus'tior: I can only assume that this name has something to do with a quality of being robust, and if the meanings of brevior as "shorter" and latior as "broader" are correct, this would then mean "more robust" (ref. Iva axillaris ssp. robustior)
• robus'tius: robust (ref. Eriogonum hoffmannii var. robustius)
• roderick'ii: after California botanist and horticulturist Wayne Vernon Roderick (1920-2003) who specialized in bulbs, corms and tubers. He got his start by emulating his gardening mother t his childhood home of Petaluma. hile still a young man he operated a nursery there. He built and managed the California native plant collection of the Botanical Garden at University of California, Berkeley, from 1960 to 1976. Then he became director of the Regional Parks Botanical Garden, a position which he held until he retired in 1982. The following is quoted from a memorium article by Ron Lutsko in the October, 2003, issue of Fremontia: "He was an insatiable plant adventurer, beginning each year with trips to Mexico and deserts of the southern U.S., then progressing up in latitude and altitude as the season drew on. By October or November he had collected enough seed and dried plant materials to put out his internationally distributed seed list and to provide local institutions with educational and ornamental material. He frequented England, Greece and Turkey. He has also visited China, the Middle East, most of the Mediterranean basin, South Africa, Costa Rica, Chile, Mexico, and of course most of the U.S., particularly the west. He knew the British and American botanical institutions intimately and was active in many horticultural societies and groups throughout the world." (ref. Ceanothus roderickii)
  
• roez'lii: after Benedikt (also called Benito) Roezl (1824-1885), a Czech who collected in Mexico and South America, and also apparently in the Sierra Nevadas. The following is quoted from an article by Ruth Ann Moger in Canadian Orchid Congress Newsletter (9:2): "Roezl was the son of a Czech gardener, and apprenticed, at the age of twelve, in the gardens of the Count of Thun in Bohemia. He subsequently worked in several important continental gardens, including those of Baron von Hugel at Vienna and Count Liechtenstein in Moravia, and the famous nursery of Van Houtte at Ghent. In 1854 he emigrated to Mexico, where he founded a nursery and and issued a catalogue of the Mexican conifers he had for sale. In 1861 he introduced the cultivation of the Rame (Boehmeria tenacissima) as a textile plant. When he was forty-four years old he lost his left arm in an accident with a machine he had invented to extract fibers from plants. He then started his life of a plant collector working for Henry Sander of St. Albans in England. Roezl traveled Central America and the west coast of North America; he sent home 10,000 orchids from Panama and Colombia in 1869. The rare Telepogon orchids that he collected at 11,000 feet died as soon as they were brought down to warmer levels, but he sent 3,000 Odontoglossums to Europe. He combed the Sierra Madre for orchids, 3,500 of which reached London in fine condition. He went across the Isthmus of Panama to Guayra and Caracas and sent eight tons of orchids and ten tons of other plants back to London. In Mexico, in the vicinity of the volcano of Colina, the Indians learned that Roezl would pay for orchids and they brought him 100,000 plants. (If parts of Mexico are desert and devoid of vegetation, is it because Roezl was there?) In 1871, Roezl brought back to England dried specimens of Dracula chimaera which he had collected in Columbia. When the German Professor Reichenbach introduced Dracula chimaera to Victorian horticulture, he described the flowers as a marvel that had lurked for thousands of years unseen in solitude. Live plants proved a challenge during transportation. Its is frightening to think how many draculas and other fragile orchids succumbed. Even though there is evidence that the plants seem to have been recognised as delicate and treated with more care, the vast majority still perished during the long journey from their homeland. Of 27,000 plants dispatched by Roezl in a consignment from New Granada (in present day Columbia), just two plants survived the long and disastrous journey to England. In 1874 Roezl returned to Europe and spent the rest of his life living off his modest fortune at Smichow near Prague (ref. Ribes roezlii)
• rol'lei: after Wayne E. Rolle (1951?- ), graduate of Southern Oregon State University in 1986 and a Forest Botanist for the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest in Oregon beginning in 1988 (ref. Arabis rollei)
• Romanzof'fia: after Chancellor of the Russian Empire Count Nikolai Petrovich Romanzoff (1754-1826), sponsor of the second Russian Pacific expedition which rounded Cape Horn and visited Chile, Easter Island, the Marshall Islands, Hawaii, and the North American coast, making an unsuccessful search for a northwest passage. The expedition was particularly significant for producing descriptions of Alaska and California (including the first scientific account of the California state flower, the Golden Poppy (ref. genus Romanzoffia)
• romanzoffia'na: see previous entry (ref. Spiranthes romanzoffiana, Syagrus romanzoffiana)
• Rom'neya/Romne'ya: the namer of the plant Romneya coulteri, the matilija poppy, wished originally to name it for Dr. Thomas Coulter (see coulteri) who first collected it, but the name Coulteria was an already established genus, so he decided to honor him instead by selecting the name of his great friend and fellow Irishman Dr. Thomas Romney Robinson (1792-1882), a prominent astronomer, for the genus, and that of Dr. Coulter for the species, and in so doing to link their names forever (ref. genus Romneya)
• Romule'a/Romu'lea: after Romulus, the founder of Rome in legend (ref. genus Romulea)
• roof'ii: after James Bernard Roof (1910-1983), founding director of the native plant garden in Tilden Park in the hills behind Berkeley. The following is quoted from an obituary by Alice Howard in Fremontia volume 11 No. 1, April 1983: "With the death of James B. Roof in early January, California lost the last of its pioneering native plant horticulturists and the California Native Plant Society lost a dedicated native plant conservationist. Born four years after the San Francisco earthquake in a refugee's shack, Jim grew up in the southwest part of San Francisco amidst what was in those days mostly open country. He was early aware of native plants near his home; he remembered being impressed at the age of five or six by a big madrone not far away. He reveled in the fields of spring wildflowers through which he waded to play around Lake Merced. His first experience with transplanting seedlings came at the age of ten or eleven when he dug up volunteers of Monterey cypress growing along a flume going to the lake. Interest in learning names of trees and shrubs started at age twelve while Jim was on a family trip to the Rockies and the Grand Canyon. His father, a master carpenter who had come to San Francisco to help rebuild it, got him a book to help, but no one in the family really shared Jim's horticultural and botanical enthusiasm. His family endeavored to discourage him by dwelling on the lack of jobs in that field. When barely in his teens, Jim and friends were distracted from their studies in school by views of Mt. Tamalpais through the windows. They often "played hookey" to go there unbeknownst to their parents. When the Great Depression caused him to lose his outside-of-school job with the San Francisco Examiner (about the time he finished high school and other jobs were not to be had), Jim joined the many others who fled to Mt. Tamalpais as a place to live off the country during hard times. The mountain dwellers banded into small groups with common interests; Jim fell in with actors and others of literary-theatrical interests. Whether his life-long interest in the performing arts stemmed from this exposure or whether he chose that group because he already had the interest is not certain. But he was an aficionado of the theater, opera, and ballet and a supporter of the annual mountain play on Tamalpais in his later years. Eventually, during this period, he repaired to Point Reyes, for the sea proved a more bountiful supplier of provender than the land as greater numbers of people competed for sustenance. The special place Tamalpais and the Point Reyes Peninsula had in Jim's heart deriving from the years in Marin County was apparent to all who knew him. In the early 1930s peregrinations in search of a little occasional cash to purchase necessities beyond the bounties of forest and sea led Jim to the Binkley Ranch in Lake County, where the warm-hearted Binkley family took him in, commencing a life-time friendship. Later he got a job as a forester with the Marin Water District helping plant trees on watershed lands, an activity he later rued as he grew aware of the destruction such artificial afforestation brought to native grasslands and their wild-flowers. Plantations of Monterey cypress, Monterey pines, and eucalyptus were the object of his scorn in later years, as was the propensity of state and federal government to cover coastal dunes with aggressive South African iceplant. His developing horticultural skills brought him to the attention of Charles Kraebel, who hired him to work at the nursery of the U.S. Forest Service's California Forest and Range Experiment Station in Berkeley. He was the propagator in studies on seed germination that expanded into the erosion control work that gave employment to many plant hunters and other workers during the Depression and the days of the WPA and CCC. The plant hunters, sometimes including Jim, brought seeds and other propagative material to the nursery, where Jim germinated the seeds and grew the plants, eventually becoming superintendent. Aided by sharp observational powers and keen analytical skills, he honed his horticultural talents and botanical interests in the company of Rimo Bacigalupi, Kraebel, Howard McMinn, Nicholas Mirov, Maunsell van Rennselaer, Lester Rowntree, and others. Eager for knowledge, he also started attending botany classes at the University of California at this time. It was McMinn, professor of botany at Mills College in Oakland and author of the Illustrated Manual of California Shrubs, who pressed for a native-plant botanic garden in the northern part of the state to complement the ones at Rancho Santa Ana and Santa Barbara in the south. He prevailed upon Roof, the Forest Service, and the East Bay Regional Park District to join forces to turn the outstanding collection of plants in the Forest Service's nursery into the nucleus of the Regional Parks Botanic Garden. Important support for the idea came from early park district directors August Vollmer, former Berkeley police chief and pioneer criminologist at the University of California, and Aurelia Reinhardt, president of Mills College. Harry Shepherd, professor in UC's School of Landscape Design, also gave important support. Building the garden began on January 1, 1940, together with much landscape planting in the parks outside the area of the garden, and often involved large crews of CCC and WPA workers. The Strybing Arboretum in San Francisco also benefited by receiving Forest Service plants. With some time out for landscaping gun emplacements around the headlands of San Francisco Bay to camouflage the sites as World War II approached, things proceeded rapidly until mid-1942, when Roof was drafted to see service with the Army Corps of Engineers in the European theater. Lack of labor to care for the young garden during the war years meant almost beginning anew in early 1946. Roof returned to a jungle of weeds, poison oak, willows, and waist-high grasses. With little regular help, let alone large crews from the CCC or WPA, he started right in to reclaim the garden. It was at this time that he initiated landscaping in geographic provinces. By 1952 things were well enough under control that it was possible to begin regular field collecting trips. Roof early began to emphasize rarities, complete representation of particular plant groups, and choice forms with horticultural possibilities. However, he never lost sight of the fact that he had a California native plant botanic garden; it was not his purpose to create or facilitate through hybridization forms not occurring in nature. He denied any special affinity for manzanitas, the group most closely associated with his name, saying only that he needed to understand them in order to identify them accurately. Eventually he had in cultivation sixty-six of the sixty-nine taxonomically recognized kinds in California and several from beyond its borders. Watching for areas scheduled for development was an important part of Jim's "rescue" trips for rare plants and forms in order to bring them into cultivation prior to their extirpation in the wild. Perhaps the first of these was Arctostaphylos franciscana (A. uva-ursi var. franciscana), which he took from the Laurel Hill cemetery in the late 1930s as it was being converted to residences. The Franciscan manzanita now exists only in cultivation. Similarly he brought into cultivation Oenothera deltoides subsp. howellii and Erysimum capitatum var. augustatum from the Antioch Dunes in the late 1960s as their last remnants were being trucked away, Clarkia franciscana and Arctostaphylos pungens var. ravenii from the San Francisco Presidio, Lilium pitkinense from the Pitkin Marsh, and Mahonia sonnet from the banks of the Truckee, among others. A number of plants from the Regional Parks Botanic Garden selected from the wild by Jim were the source of material introduced to the commercial trade by others and erroneously credited to them. Jim himself especially liked Ceanothus porrectus, Arctostaphylos uva-ursi var. leobreweri (now extinct in the wild), A. uva-ursi var. repens, and Eriogonum ursinum. He was the first to find the key to growing at low elevations such high mountain plants as Phyllodoce breweri, Cassiope mertensiana, Kalmia polifolia var. microphylla, dwarf willows, Aquilegia pubescens, and some of the pines, such as bristle-cone, whitebark, and limber. The Sierran meadow he created in the Botanic Garden, complete with quaking aspen, which was not supposed to do well at low elevations, was featured in sketches in the chapter on native plants in early editions of the Sunset Western Garden Book. He wrote on native plants in articles in Leaflets of Western Botany, The Four Seasons and The Changing Seasons, the Journal of the California Horticultural Society, and periodicals of CNPS. Jim's Guide to the Plant Species of the Regional Parks Botanic Garden was much more than a checklist of the species to be found there. Occasional inclusion of the human stories associated with many of the plantings made it also pleasurable to read. It is regrettable that Jim was never able to revise it to add the many acquisitions, some of great significance, between 1959 and his retirement as director of the Garden in 1976. Never one to shrink from controversy and always independent in thought and action, Jim, as the result of careful observation, was preaching the benefits of prescribed burning years before it began to compete with the Forest Service's long-standing Smokey-Bear philosophy of fire suppression. One learned much from hearing him hold forth on the philosophical differences between parks and recreation and the consequences of recent tendencies to confuse the two. The California Native Plant Society benefited from Jim's knowledge from its inception in 1965 as an out­growth of an effort to defend the Regional Parks Botanic Garden from a non-supportive new administration. He served on the statewide board several terms as vice president, was a director for many years, and continued to be horticultural advisor up to his death. He served two terms as president of the San Francisco Bay Chapter and, sponsored by the Marin Chapter, was named a fellow of the Society in 1976. He also played a key role in passage of the state's endangered plant law. It was a remark of his that made me seek out Senator John Nejedly to sponsor the legislation. Without Senator Nejedly's legislative skills and influence, the struggle for the bill would surely have been a much longer and harder one. A person of complete integrity and the courage of his convictions, Jim was also an outstanding raconteur with something approaching total recall of the events of a varied and interesting life. It is most unfortunate that he and I were not able to complete the oral history taping we had begun when he learned of his final adversary. We turned instead to an effort once again to save native plants - preparation of recovery plans for the Presidio manzanita and the Truckee mahonia for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Endangered Species Program. Jim was a genius in his field, though he would have said he was only doing what careful observation of the plants in their native habitat told him to do. We are not likely to see another like him. Tax-deductible contributions in his memory may be sent to Western States Legal Foundation, 506 15th Street, Oakland 94612, earmarked for defense of San Bruno Mountain, another endangered enclave close to Jim's heart." (ref. Arctostaphylos manzanita ssp. roofii)
• roosior'um: after Dr. Alfred Raphael Roos (1889-1980), his son Dr. John Christian Roos (1918- ) and Lucille J. Parks Roos (Mrs. John Christian Roos) (1922- ). From an article in the L.A. Times 10/13/1980 entitled "Doctor Wore Out Two Cars Seeking Causes of Allergies": "In another time and another place, Alfred Roos might have accepted chickens and eggs for his medical services in the great country-doctor tradition. He didn't, however, because chickens in the early 1920s in Southern California were rapidly being displaced by homes and factories. What Dr. Roos did do was donate tens of thousands of hours and what could have been millions of dollars in income to fighting allergies in children. Hailed by his colleagues at a 1955 tribute as a 'giant of goodness.' the devout Seventh-day Adventist continued nearly to the time of his death Oct. 6 at age 91 to give of his services. Interviewed in 1970 when he was 'only' 81, Roos talked of the years he had spent at California and White Memorial Hospitals, where a memorial service will be held for him today. Roos came relatively late to medicine. He entered Loma Linda University School of Medicine in 1913, when he was24. Earlier he had 'taught botany and it was that avocation which moved him to become one of the first men in medicine to pursue a link between pollens and allergies.' After reading a textbook on bacteriology and immunology, he began to theorize that pollen extracts could be used to protect people with allergies. That hypothesis was to take him across the United States to collect pollens from which he distilled his own extracts. He tested those extracts by pricking the top layer of skin on a patient's arm to see what reactions developed. If a slight swelling showed, Roos then knew that the patient was allergic to grass or bark or pollen. The next step was treatment with dilutions of the extract to build an immunity. Fifteen years, two cars and 150,000 miles later Roos had finished his basic research in which he made more than 100,000 skin tests. Out of his work grew the allergy clinic at White Memorial which he founded and where he even lived in the later years of his life, continuing his volunteer efforts for community children. Allergies, he told an interviewer, remained an elusive target throughtout his life. He liked to tell of the 'brain tumor' victim referred to him by doctors who had made a diagnosis but couldn't locate her tumor. Roos found it was the grass and desert pollens near her home that made her blind and mute for days at a time, not the hypothetical tumor that had been diagnosed. Roos saw young asthmatic victims grow to become track stars through his treatments and more than four decades ago was one of the first scientists to determine that non-smokers in close proximity to smokers could also suffer respiratory ailments. At 6-foot, 4-inches Roos was an imposing figure who until a few years ago was still working 50 and 60 hours, six days a week. 'I have not yet become accustomed to the 40-hour week,' he said then. Besides, he said, 'I never think of the time. The work is so rewarding.'" He was also a member of the Samuel B. Parish Botanical Society of Southern California and author of a book on a botanical survey of Southern California showing the distribution of plants of allergic importance and their extensions throughout the Pacific Southwest, 1938." John Christian Roos got his B.A. at Pacific Union College in 1941 and his M.D. in 1944 at the College of Medical Evangelists (later to become Loma Linda University). His specialties were human pathologic anatomy, taxonomic botany and plant exploration, and he had a particular interest in and spent a lot of time botanizing in the White and Inyo Mountains. His wife Lucille graduated from Pacific Union College in 1943 (ref. Cryptantha roosiorum)
• Rorip'pa: an Anglo-Saxon word rorippen whose meaning has been lost (ref. genus Rorippa)
• Ro'sa: an ancient Latin name whose meaning has been lost (ref. genus Rosa)
• rosa'ceus: rose-like
• ros'ea/ros'eum: rosy-colored (ref. Althaea rosea, Antennaria rosea ssp. confinis, Atriplex rosea, Oenothera rosea, Sedum rosea, Eriogonum roseum)
• ros'ei: after Lewis Samuel Rose (1893-1973), see entry for lewisrosei (ref. Arctostaphylos tomentosa ssp. rosei, Lupinus rosei, Minuartia rosei)
• rosen'se: named after Mt. Rose in Washoe County, Nevada (ref. Eriogonum rosense)
• Rosmari'nus: from the Latin ros, "dew," and marinus, "of the sea" (ref. genus Rosmarinus)
• rossianor'um: after the Scottish naval officer and Arctic explorer John Ross (1777-1856) and/or James Clark Ross (1800-1862). John Ross entered the service of the Royal Navy at the age of 9 in 1786, serving in the Mediteranean until 1789 and later in the English Channel, acting as Captain of the Swedish Navy in 1808, and becoming a commander in 1812. He was also Consul in Stockholm, 1839–46, and later led a private expedition, ultimately unsuccessful, to search for the missing Arctic explorer Sir John Franklin, 1850–1. He is considered the first person to reach the North Magnetic Pole. He was knighted in 1834 and became a Rear-Admiral in 1851. The following is from a website of the National Portrait Gallery: "Ross became an Arctic explorer after distinguished naval service in the Napoleonic Wars. In 1818, [as Captain of the Isabella and in the company of Lieut. William Edward Parry in the Alexander] he made his first voyage in search of the Northwest Passage to China. Deciding the route was blocked by mountains, Ross's reputation suffered when it was later shown that the mountains were an optical illusion. [He did however reach and chart Baffin Bay, and confirmed readings and observations made by the great British explorer William Baffin some two hundred years earlier]. Ross rebounded by attracting funding from [one of his friends] the gin distiller [and Sheriff of London] Felix Booth, to command the first steam ship, named Victory, into the Arctic on another voyage to locate the Northwest Passage (1829-33)." He was extremely fortunate to be rescued by a whaling vessel after his ship was caught and crushed by pack ice in 1833. His experience in the Arctic on this occasion is one of the great annals in the history of Arctic exploration. His nephew, Sir James Clark Ross, accompanied him as second-in-command on his 1829-1833 expedition, and prior to that, had gone "on several Arctic expeditions with Sir William E. Parry from 1819 to 1827. His subsequent magnetic survey missions to the continent of Antarctica resulted in many important discoveries." (from All Things Arctic) (ref. Plagiobothrys reticulatus var. rossianorum)
• ros'sii: same as previous entry (ref. Carex rossii)
• rostella'ta: from the Latin rostellum, "a little beak, a small snout," in turn from rostrum, "the beak of a bird" (ref. Eleocharis rostellata)
• rostra'ta/rostra'tum: beaked (ref. Clarkia rostrata, Tracyina rostrata, Solanum rostratum)
• rostriflor'us: having beaked flowers (ref. Penstemon rostriflorus)
• rosula'ta: with leaves in a rosette (ref. Navarretia rosulata, Sibara rosulata)
• Rota'la: from the Latin rota, "wheel," and rotalis, "wheeled, wheel-like," referring to the whorled leaves (ref. genus Rotala)
• rothrock'ii: after Dr. Joseph Trimble Rothrock (1839-1922), professor of botany at the University of Pennsylvania and surgeon on the Wheeler Exploring Expedition of 1873-1875 (ref. Artemisia rothrockii, Galium rothrockii, Keckiella rothrockii var. jacintensis, Nama rothrockii)
• Rottboell'ia: after the Danish botanist Christen Friis Rottbøll (1727-1797), a physician, traveller, physician, Director of the Copenhagen Botanic Garden and pupil of Linnaeus (ref. genus Rottboellia)
• rotunda'ta: rounded
• rotundifo'lia/rotundifolius: with rounded leaves (ref. Boykinia rotundifolia, Eremalche rotundifolia, Mentha rotundifolia, Phacelia rotundifolia, Symphoricarpos rotundifolius var. parishii)
• rotun'dus: rounded (ref. Cyperus rotundus)
• rowean'us: after Edwin Denys Rowe (1881-1954). The following is from an obituary in the the Santa Barbara News-Press, 18 March 1954: "E.D. Rowe, chairman of the County Park Commission, a member of the Lompoc City Planning Commission, and a veteran Santa Barbara county horticulturist, died in his sleep early this morning at his home. He was 73 years of age. Mr. Rowe was born Jan. 18, 1881, in England. He attended the famous Mill Hill Public School. He served an apprenticeship in gardening and the studied agricultural chemistry in London. At the age of 22 he went to Germany, where he spent two years getting acquainted with advanced horticultural methods there. Following that, he emigrated to the United States. He had planned to spend a year here, learning about landscape gardening and business methods before returning to England and entering business for himself. He arrived in Ventura on Christmas Eve, 1903, with $1 in his pocket. He had lived in California since that time. He came to the Santa Barbara-Montecito area in 1904 and had charge of landscaping several large estates. He worked for several years with Peter Riedel, well known for his work with Franceschi Park. In 1912 Mr. Rowe went into the landscaping business here on his own. During the depression he worked for eight years for the National Park Service when CCC boys were brought to Lompoc to restore La Purisima Mission. He had charge of planting the gardens there to native California plants. The gardens are becoming more famous every year. In his work with the restoration of La Purisima Mission, Mr. Rowe experimented with native plants and their need for water until the mesa above the mission has become a "forest" of between 800 and 900 trees. These trees, which today tower 20 to 30 feet in the air, were surplus trees of from three to five inches, left over from the Mission project. During the war years he worked as a farm labor placement official in the Lompoc and Santa Ynez areas. And for a time he worked on county parks, such as Santa Rosa and Nojoqui. After the war he started his own nursery in Lompoc, where he propagated native plants and did estate landscaping." (ref. Ceanothus papillosus var. roweanus)
• rubel'la/rubel'lus: pale red, bceoming red (ref. Arenaria rubella, Elatine rubella, Mimulus rubellus)
• ru'bens: red (ref. Bromus madritensis ssp. rubens)
• ru'ber: see rubra below (ref. Centranthus ruber, Lupinus ruber)
• rubes'cens: becoming red or reddish (ref. Heuchera rubescens, Nemacladus rubescens)
• rubicun'da: from the Latin rubicundus for "rubicund, red" (ref. Clarkia rubicunda)
• rubicun'dula: reddish (ref. Castilleja rubicundula)
• rubisep'alum: with reddish sepals (ref. Trichostema rubisepalum)
• ru'bra/ru'brum: from the Latin ruber or rubra meaning "red" (ref. Actaea rubra, Claytonia rubra, Festuca rubra, Spergularia rubra, Chenopodium rubrum)
• rubriflor'us: red-flowered (ref. Lotus rubriflorus)
• Ru'bus: a Latin name for "bramble" or "blackberry" from ruber, "red" (ref. genus Rubus)
• Rudbeck'ia: named after the Swedish father and son who were professors of botany and predecessors of Linnaeus, Olaus Johannis Rudbeck (1630-1702) and Olaus Olai Rudbeck (1660-1740) (ref. genus Rudbeckia)
• rudera'le: growing in waste places (ref. Lithospermum ruderale)
• ru'dis: rough, untilled, coarse (ref. Aeschynomene rudis, Arctostaphylos rudis)
• rufid'ula: somewhat red (ref. Saxifraga rufidula)
• rufres'cens: reddish
• rugo'sa/rugo'sum: wrinkled (ref. Sphaeralcea ambigua var. rugosa, Rapistrum rugosum)
• rugulo'sus: slightly wrinkled (ref. Juncus rugulosus)
• Ru'mex: the ancient Latin name for the docks or sorrels (ref. genus Rumex)
• runcina'ta: saw-toothed, with the teeth pointing toward the base (ref. Crepis runcinata)
• Ruper'tia: named after Rupert C. Barneby (1911-2000), botanist at the New York Botanic Garden who named 1,160 new species of plants. Born in England, he travelled throughout the American southwest with his companion Dwight Ripley collecting plants. He was a prolific author and became a specialist on Astragalus. The following is quoted from the Botanical Electronic News, No. 261, December, 2000: "Dr. Rupert Charles Barneby, Curator Emeritus in The New York Botanical Garden's Institute of Systematic Botany and one of the Garden's most senior and distinguished scientists, died Tuesday, December 5. He was 89 years old. Barneby's association with The New York Botanical Garden spanned nearly a half century. He arrived as a visiting scholar in the 1950s and shortly thereafter accepted a staff position as Honorary Curator of Western Botany. He went on to become a Research Associate and an Editorial Consultant for Brittonia, the Garden's esteemed scientific journal covering systematic botany. A self-taught botanist, Barneby rose to become a world expert in Leguminosae (the bean family) and Menispermaceae (the moonseed family). He spent his career at the Garden curating and studying the world's best collection of New World Leguminosae.      Gregory Long, President of The New York Botanical Garden, said, "Rupert Barneby was one of the most productive botanists of the twentieth century, a giant in the field of botanical research. Over the last half century, he has been an inspiring mentor, a meticulous scholar, and a creative editor who has made an enormous contribution to the botanical world. We at The New York Botanical Garden are indeed fortunate that his kind, generous, gentle manner graced our lives." In 1999, the International Botanical Congress presented Barneby with its prestigious Millennium Botany Award for a lifetime of contribution to science. In 1980, he was the winner of the Henry Allan Gleason Award, an annual award from The New York Botanical Garden for an outstanding recent publication in the field of plant taxonomy, plant ecology, or plant geography. In 1989, the American Society of Plant Taxonomists awarded Barneby with the Asa Gray Award for his contributions to systematic botany. In 1991, The Garden honored Barneby by institutionalizing his legacy through the establishment of the Rupert C. Barneby Fund for Research in Legume Systematics. The Engler Silver Medal, botanical science's highest honor for publications, was awarded to Barneby in 1992 for his monographic work Sensitivae Censitae: A Revision of the Genus Mimosa Linnaeus (Mimosaceae) in the New World.
       Since the publication of his first botanical paper in 1941, Barneby published more than 6,500 pages of papers, monographs, and journals. Among his most influential works are Atlas of North American Astragalus; Daleae Imagines; Intermountain Flora, Volume 3, Part B; and Silk Tree, Guanacaste, Monkey's Earring: A Generic System for the Synandrous Mimosaceae of the Americas, (3 Volumes). "Rupert Barneby was an incredible scholar and one of the nicest people I have known. He was one of the most productive and erudite students of botany and horticulture on the staff of The New York Botanical Garden in its 109-year history. He will be remembered by thousands of colleagues for his uncommon generosity in sharing his inexhaustible knowledge and precise editorial skills. He has left an authoritative legacy of publications and will be sorely missed by botanists around the world," said Professor Sir Ghillean Prance FRS, VMH, the former Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Barneby was known for his talent for discovering or rediscovering rare and local species. In the course of his five decades of research, Barneby described and named over 1,100 different plant species new to science. A botanist is fortunate to have a new species of plant named in his honor. Barneby had not only 25 different species named after him, but also, three genera (groups of species sharing common characteristics, such as roses or oaks) of plants -- Barnebya, Barnebyella, and Barnebydendron. Barneby was a member of the American Society of Plant Taxonomists, the International Association for Plant Taxonomy, and the New England Botanical Club, and a Fellow of the California Academy of Sciences.
       "Rupert Barneby was a great student of plants in the style of George Bentham and the other encyclopedic workers of the nineteenth century, who would tirelessly analyze all we knew about enormous groups of plants and reduce that knowledge to lucid prose, working day after day, month after month, and year after year. He always had time to encourage and help students and colleagues, giving them the benefit of his extraordinary classical education, friendly personality, and love for plants. He will be greatly missed," said Dr. Peter Raven, Director of the Missouri Botanical Garden and close friend and colleague. He lived among literati as easily as he did among scientists. Considered his close friends were W.H. Auden, Christopher Isherwood, Julian Huxley, and others. Rupert Barneby was born October 6, 1911, in Monmouthshire, England. He attended Cambridge University where he received his B.A. in History and Modern Languages in 1932. He came to the United States in 1937 and established permanent residency in 1941. In 1978, he was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Science degree from The City University of New York." (ref. genus Rupertia)
• rupes'tris: growing among rocks [compare campestris] (ref. Eucnide rupestris)
• rupico'la: growing on ledges or cliffs (ref. Mimulus rupicola, Poa glauca ssp. rupicola)
• rupifra'gum: rock breaking, i.e. growing in rock crevices
• rupi'num: from the Latin rupes, "rock," thus referring in some way to rocks, perhaps suggesting that as a habitat (ref. Eriogonum rupinum)
• Rup'pia: named after Heinrich Bernhard Ruppius (1688-1719), a German botanist (ref. genus Ruppia)
• rus'byi: after Henry Hurd Rusby (1855-1940). The following is quoted from a website of the New York Botanical Garden: "Henry Hurd Rusby (1855-1940) was influential in promoting the study of economic botany at The New York Botanical Garden throughout the first fifty years of its existence. As a youth growing up in Franklin (now Nutley), New Jersey, Rusby demonstrated a passionate interest in plants. At the age of 21 his personal herbarium won him first prize at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia in 1876. At that time he became acquainted with Dr. George Thurber, who was the President of the Torrey Botanical Club. Rusby joined the Torrey Botanical Club in 1879 and around that time began studying medicine at the Medical College of New York University. In 1880, while still a medical student, he spent 18 months collecting plants in Texas and New Mexico as an agent for the Smithsonian Institution. In 1883 he returned to the Southwest to study and collect medicinal flora of Arizona for Parke, Davis & Co. Rusby graduated from medical school in 1884 and in 1885 he embarked on a two-year excursion for Parke, Davis & Co., traversing the South American continent and exploring remote regions of Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Chile, Bolivia, and Brazil. Although trained as a physician, Rusby chose to forego medicine in favor of his interest in plants. In 1889 he was made Professor of Botany and Materia Medica at the College of Pharmacy at Columbia University. He served 26 years as Dean of the Faculty until his retirement in 1930, and as Dean Emeritus until his death in 1940. Rusby's association with The New York Botanical Garden began even before the Garden was formally established. As a member of the Torrey Botanical Club, he met Nathaniel Lord Britton. It had long been a goal of the club to establish a botanic garden. In 1888 a botanic garden committee of eight distinguished club members, including Britton and Rusby, was formed. Rusby is listed among the numerous incorporators and was instrumental in arranging to have the Columbia College herbarium and botanical library deposited at the Garden. In 1898 Rusby was appointed Honorary Curator of the Economic Botany Museum and served on the Board of Managers until 1933. Rusby's neotropical explorations, particularly in the Amazon region set the precedent for the systematic and economic botany that has characterized subsequent research at The New York Botanical Garden. The productivity of his trips was due to his endurance and resourcefulness as an explorer. In 1921, when Rusby was 65 years old, he embarked on his last field trip to South America as the Director of the Mulford Biological Exploration of the Amazon Basin. Henry Rusby died on November 18, 1940, at the age of 85." (ref. Sphaeralcea rusbyi)
• rustica'na: pertaining to the country (ref. Armoracia rusticana)
• Ru'ta: the classical Latin name (ref. genus Ruta)
• ru'tila: reddish
• ruygt'ii: after botanist Jake A. Ruygt (1952- ), member of the Land Trust of Napa County and co-compiler of a Flora of Napa County (ref. Trichostema ruygtii)
• rydbergia'na: see following entry (ref. Heuchera rubescens var. rydbergiana)
• rydberg'ii: named after Per Axel Rydberg (1860-1931), a member of the New York Botanical Gardens in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, who wrote the first book on the flora of the Rockies from Canada to Mexico, and several other floras. "P. A. (Per Axel) Rydberg, the first curator of The New York Botanical Garden Herbarium, was a plant taxonomist whose specialty was the flora of the Rocky Mountains and Great Plains areas. He began working for The New York Botanical Garden in the summer of 1897 as a member of the first Garden field expedition, and joined the permanent staff in 1899 when they were first organized. In the course of his career, he was to publish over 7,000 pages of research, making him one of the most productive scientists at The New York Botanical Garden. Born in Sweden, Rydberg emigrated to America in 1882. He first worked in the iron mines of Michigan where he hoped to become a mining engineer but he suffered a serious accident which left him with a lifelong limp and forced him to turn to intellectual pursuits. From 1884 to 1890, he taught mathematics at the Luther Academy in Wahoo, Nebraska, while he studied at the University of Nebraska. He received his B.S. in 1891, and the strong influence of his botany professor, Charles Edwin Bessey, helped to determine his lifelong devotion to plant studies. Soon after he graduated, Rydberg received a commission from the United States Department of Agriculture to undertake a botanical exploration of western Nebraska. He received another one in 1892 to explore the Black Hills of South Dakota, and in 1893 he was in the Sand Hills, again in western Nebraska. During this time he continued to teach at the Luther Academy. In 1895, Rydberg received his M.A. from the University of Nebraska.The university published his monograph on Rosales, one of only three parts published of a projected 25-part series on the flora of Nebraska. That summer, he was collecting once again for the United States Department of Agriculture in Montana with Cornelius Lott Shear. When autumn arrived, he moved to New York to pursue a Ph.D. degree at Columbia University under the guidance of Nathaniel Lord Britton. During this time he also was teaching natural sciences and mathematics at the Upsala Institute (later Upsala College) in Brooklyn and in Kenilworth, New Jersey. In the summer of 1897 he was sent to collect in Montana and the Yellowstone Park region with Ernst Athearn Bessey, son of his mentor Charles Edwin Bessey. The two men were part of the first field program expedition of The New York Botanical Garden. Dr. Rydberg received his Ph.D. in 1898 and during that summer was employed once again by the Garden to process the collections obtained from the Montana and Yellowstone park expedition. Early in 1899, the Garden organized its first permanent staff and he became one of the nine original members. His title initially was Assistant Curator and this was changed in 1908 to Curator of the Herbarium. He would hold that title until his death in 1931. In 1900 Dr. Rydberg conducted field work in southeast Colorado with King Vreeland. In 1901 he visited Kew Gardens in England and made a return trip to Sweden as well. In 1905 he was collecting in Utah with visits to the University of Wyoming, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. In 1911 he undertook an exploration of southeast Utah with Albert Osbun Garrett and in 1925, the Allegheny Mountains with John Tuttle Perry. A trip in 1926 took him to Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, and the Dakotas. His final field expedition was in 1929 to Kansas and Minnesota but it was cut short due to illness and only included work in Kansas. Dr. Rydberg was elected to membership in the Torrey Botanical Club in 1896. In 1900 he joined the American Association for the Advancement of Science and was elected a fellow the following year. Also that year, he was chosen as an Associate of the Botanical Society of America. In 1907 he became a member of the American Geographical Society and the Ecological Society of America. The family of Dr. Rydberg destroyed most of his personal papers at the time of his death. The few that remain consist of miscellaneous correspondence and research notes, along with the manuscript proofs for several papers and publications, including his dissertation, Monograph of the North American Potentilleae, and the first edition of one of his most well-known works, Flora of the Rocky Mountains. Also included in this collection are a group of research materials related to the publication of a bio-bibliography of Dr. Rydberg written by Arnold Tiehm. This appeared under the title Per Axel Rydberg: a biography, bibliography and list of his taxa. It was published in 1990 as volume 58 of the series Memoirs of the New York Botanical Garden. Dr. Rydberg’s field notebooks have been removed to the Collectors’ Field Notebooks series (Quoted from a website of the New York Botanical Gardens) (ref. Penstemon rydbergii, Horkelia rydbergii)
• Rytidosper'ma: from the Greek rhytis or rhytidos, "a wrinkle," and sperma, "a seed" (ref. genus Rytidosperma)