Good books or websites about the botanical names of plants?

I'd be interested to know of any comprehensive websites or good books which offer detailed explanations of the Latin names of plants. Thanks.

 

I'm currently offering up for sale, Gardener's Latin. Which I think would cover your needs.

Make me an offer

 

I'll get back to you!

 

The RHS magazine "The Garden" for September made mention of "RHS Latin for Gardeners"

 

Here's a site which shows you how to PRONOUNCE those Latin names.

http://www.finegardening.com/pguide/pronunciation-guide-to-botanical-latin.aspx

 

Nifty. However, how does one pronounce:

Aesculus

they say ESS-kew-lus and I would have said EYE-skew-lus or perhaps EYES-kew-lus

??

 

I would say ee-skew-lus Kristen. Pronounced the same as encyclopaedia and Paediatric I think.

 

Carl.

 

I've heard it pronounced Ass-Kew-Less, Ass-Kew-Luss, Ace-Kew-Less and any variation there of to be honest it doesent really matter as long as people know what you mean

 

I'm probably wrong as I learned from Mum who had a Black Country Accent.

But i'd pronounce it A-S-CUE-LESS.

 

Ok ... I Googled it. Sorry Zigs, but "Carl" is not the right answer

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Æ

"In Classical Latin, the combination AE denotes the diphthong [ai], which had a value similar to the long i in fine as pronounced in most dialects of modern English."

Although http://ancienthistory.about.com/od/latinlanguage/qt/latinpronounce.htm says: "Latin Diphthongs The first vowel sound in "Caesar," ae is a diphthong pronounced like "eye"". I doubt you've ever pronounced Caesar like that, I certainly haven't! and when I studied Vergil's (sic) Aeneid we certainly never referred to it as Eye-knee-ad - plus we spelt it "Virgil" so I doubt they've got the rest correct either!

http://www.canticanova.com/latin_pron.htm says "Vowels are constant in pronunciation; they are always pronounced as below, without exception!" - so that's clear then! and it goes on to say "Æ pronounced exactly like Latin E sound example: æterna" yeagh, well that's crystal clear - Not!

I think this probably sums up my view:

"In English we are taught to pronounce AE as in beet, but all Latin books which I have referred to insist that the Latin AE should be pronounced as bite."

So although we use Latin for plant names it depends whether you pronounce it in ... Latin ... or in ... English

 

AS far as I know I've always pronounced it Ess Ku Lus from the time I started waffling it from the age of 2.

But I think it might be pronounced Aye Ku Lus now. :patpat: Aye, aye, Aesculus.

EDIT: Kristen was clever; he googled it. I just went by Spanish pronounciation, which sort of follows Latin.

 

You can pronounce latin anyway you want now as its a dead language.

I'm still going to call Aesculus Carl. Karl or Mr Sulu though

 

Kristen thought he was clever until he discovered that Google results are like Gardeners - "ask two and get three different opinions" :(

 

So if Latin is a dead language then we should be pronouncing it the English way as Kristen says.......as in beet.

Also does this mean we shouldn't be using the Latin names of plants anymore?