Classical Association of Vancouver Island

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Thursday, November 7th, 2013
7:30 PM to 9:30 PM

The Third Meeting of the 2013/2014 Academic Year will take place on Thursday, November 7th at 7:30 pm in Clearihue A212.

Professor John Fitch, University of Victoria, will present a lecture entitled "What's in a Name? Latin and Greek in our Names for Wildflowers.�

Names contribute to our ability as humans to differentiate between things and recognize them. As the ancient saying goes, nomina si pereunt, perit et cognitio rerum: if names fall away, the knowledge of things also falls away.

All plants, cultivated and wild, are assigned a botanical name, the first name indicating the genus and the second the species. Take the name Penstemon nemorosus: the first element Penstemon tells that the plant belongs to a genus whose flowers have �five stamens�, while nemorosus indicates that this particular species grows �in woodland.� Most such names have Greek or Latin roots. Dr Fitch will discuss a selection of such names, with special reference to the wildflowers of British Columbia.

The lecture will be accompanied by photographs illustrating the plant features to which the names refer. This talk is related to Dr Fitch�s recent book Wildflowers of the Coast.

The Classical Association of Vancouver Island is the University of Victoria�s organization for people interested in the Greek and Roman worlds. Monthly lectures by local and international scholars take place at UVic, hosted by the Department of Greek and Roman Studies.

All members of the Victoria community are welcome to attend the lectures. To join CAVI and be on our mailing list, please send your name, contact information (address/email), and membership dues (10$/year, cheques payable to CAVI):

CAVI � Department of Greek and Roman Studies
PO Box 1700 STN CSC
Victoria, BC V8W 2Y2

For more information, please contact: Dr. Brendan Burke, Chair, Department of Greek and Roman Studies ([email protected]).

Questions or corrections about our mailing list, contact Sonja Bermingham at 250 721 8514.