vareitates levissimas non curat botanicus?

[Bill Purves]

At 04:50 PM 1/18/01 +0000, Dave Robinson said:

>Apparently, Carl Linneaus used to always say in Latin:
>
>"vareitates levissimas non curat botanicus"  
>
>Does anyone actually know what that means?

First, disclaimers:

I'm not a taxonomist
I've never seen that quote
I haven't studied Latin since my sophomore year in
high school, which was--YAAAGH!!--51 years ago

BUT what the hey... let me take a whack at it.  First,
the first word must be misspelled: It should be
varietates.

Here goes:  "The botanist does not trouble himself
with trivial differences."  Seriously: I bet that's
it.

And I hope that somebody who KNOWS will enlighten us.

(bill)


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