"John & / or Maryln" wrote in
:

The two statements below seem to be in conflict to me. Does anyone
have a favorite site for tracking down the origins of Botanical
names? Thanks , John

The genus name Hypericum means "above a picture", referring to the
fact that in
some ancient cultures, it was hung above pictures to ward off evil
spirits. ...
www.desert-tropicals.com/Plants/
Clusiaceae/Hypericum_calycinum.html - 9k - Jul 12, 2005 - Cached -
Similar pages

Hypericum - HOMEOPATHIC REMEDIES: AN ILLUSTRATED GUIDE Presented
... The word Hypericum means "sub-heather" (?p? and ??e???),
indicating its manifest
relation to the heaths, which at once leads us to think of Ledum.
... www.homeoint.org/illustr/h/hyper.htm - 5k - Cached - Similar
pages





I wouldn't trust a homeopathic reference to be accurate, and the
formation of the word doesn't make sense, wouldn't below-heather
come out to hypoerica? Most of the Hypericums that I have seen tend
to be a bit taller than heath anyway.

This page: http://www.healthy.net/scr/article.asp?ID=915 indicates
that the genus was named by Linnaeus, who used a classical name,
meaning that he didn't create a new name for the plant, he used an
old Greek name. He preferred to use classical Greek or Latin names
when he could. Apparently he mentioned his suspicions in the work he
described the plant in. I would use that authority before the other.

Sean