Well, my Latin expert says that "curat" means "to cure" or 'to help"....but
she is not sure what "levissimas" means....our best interpretation is "Small
variations do not help the botanist" but we are unsure.
> -----Original Message-----
> From: purves at THUBAN.AC.HMC.EDU [SMTP:purves at THUBAN.AC.HMC.EDU]
> Sent: Friday, January 19, 2001 12:03 AM
> To: plant-ed at hgmp.mrc.ac.uk> Subject: Re: vareitates levissimas non curat botanicus?
>> 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)
>>> William K. Purves Vice President/Editorial Director
> The Mona Group LLC West Coast Office
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