In article , "flake"
wrote:

"Sue & Bob Hobden" wrote in message
...
(with some edits):
all from The Collingridge Dictionary of Plant Names written by Allen.J
.Coombes ex Head of Latin at Eton. He's sorted out many a dispute in our
household. :-)

He says in his introduction that it all depends on where the name came
from,
i.e. if it's from a town, person etc then it's pronounced that way if it's
from the Latin then it should be pronounced the Latin way, i.e. all "C's"
are hard as in cat.
snip
- and he says: Kis-tus (from greek)- *but* comforting, A.T.Johnson in
"Plant names simplified" says sis-tus!In Sweden we use the principle (some
of us ;-) that in latin plante-names the C in front of a soft vowel
(e,i,y) is pronounciated soft like s, and before a hard vowel(a,o,u) we
use the hard k. Such as sistus and kotoneaster.
But I have experienced that latin (that is, it is often greek ;-) is very
different from contry to country in it's pronounciation - but very handy
to use reading catalouges and botany-litterature abroad.
Cheers vera

--
VERA GADE NORRKOPING
VERA @GADE.SE