It is perhaps surprising that long before this some botanical authorities or institutions would not have endeavored to create a record of exactly who every taxon commemorating a specific individual was named for. It seems to me that this should be a part of the public record for every so-named taxon, but it isn't. In many cases, one has to go back to the original publication, often one or two hundred years old, usually in a language that is not English, and housed in some library far away, and even then the plant name authors don't always say who they intended to honor. In some cases there are several people with the same last name, and it is not always easy to determine which one is correct. A certain amount of guesswork was involved in some of these entries, and I have tried to indicate where there is uncertainty. When a taxon has a person's name attached as a specific epithet and there is a specimen record of that taxon being collected by a person with the same name, I have made the assumption that this is the derivation of the epithet. This may not in every case be valid. I do not wish for anyone to be under the impression that I am an authority. This website is merely a compilation of information that is as available to anyone else as it is to me. Almost all of my sources are secondary ones, either publish-
ed material, or other websites. Any of these sources can include incorrect information, and it is for this reason that I cannot and do not guarantee the accuracy of the material presented here, although I have done what I can to assure it. I am certain that there are mistakes in this etymological compilation, and when such have been brought to my attention I make every attempt to right them. Anyone with any information at all which can supplement or correct that which is presented here is invited to please contact me at mmlcharters[at]calflora.net.

Southern Africa includes South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Swaziland and Lesotho, but most of these taxa are present in South Africa proper. Not all entries have been identified as to source, but some that are are from Umberto Quattrocchi's excellent 4-volume work CRC World Dictionary of Plant Names and his CRC World Dictionary of Grasses, for which I thank him greatly, Clifford and Bostock's amazingly complete Etymological Dictionary of Grasses, the PlantzAfrica website, and from Elsa Pooley's guides Mountain Flowers and Wildflowers of Kwa-Zulu Natal. I also want to express my very great appreciation and gratitude to David Hollombe who has applied the same ex-
pertise that has improved my California Plant Names website to this one. His ability to track down obscure names is in my opinion unequalled. Two other people to whom I am deeply indebted are Professor Leonard Newton, the co-author with Urs Eggli of the superb volume Etymological Dict-
ionary of Succulent Plant Names (2004), who very kindly took time to go over the names of succulents in this compilation and wrote to me from Kenya with many valuable additions and corr-
ections, and Hugh Clarke, co-author with Deon Kesting of Botanical Names: What Do They Mean (2008), who very graciously corresponded from South Africa with many additional notes and infor-
mation. Both Mssrs. Newton and Clarke have continued to be sources that I have relied on. An absolutely invaluable source of information is Mary Gunn & Leslie Edward Wastell Codd's classic Botanical Exploration of Southern Africa (1981) and also their "Additional Biographical Notes on Plant Collectors in Southern Africa" (Bothalia 15, 1985). Other useful online sources are the Flora of Zimbabwe and the Swaziland Flora Database websites. I have also benefitted from the work of Geoffrey Andrew, a retired solicitor from Hermanus, who has compiled the excellent Fernkloof Plant Names Explained. Taxonomic information has been drawn largely from the Plants of Southern Africa Checklist website created by the National Botanical Institute, the Tropicos website created by the Missouri Botanical Garden, and the International Plant Names Index which is a joint project of the Harvard University Herbarium, Kew Gardens, and the Australian National Herbarium. Finally I extend my sincere gratitude to Alice Notten, Interpretation Officer at Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden in Cape Town, who has graciously tolerated my requests for information and helped to uncover the derivations of several difficult generic names.

NOTE: The list of epithets that makes up this compilation includes both ones that are current and ones that are no longer current. In order to be as inclusive as possible, I have gone through the entire list of approximately 60,000 taxa in the Plants Of Southern Africa database and selected those epithets that appear to be derived from personal names. I feel it is important to remember and honor those individ-
uals who have contributed to southern African flora even if the epithets that honored them have been overtaken by taxonomic changes and relegated to synonymy. There are still many names about which I have no information, and further research may illuminate some of these questions. It is my sincere hope that knowledgeable readers will weigh in with information that has escaped me. When I finish with the names I am fairly certain of, I will go back and try to do additional work on the questionable ones which are listed here.