HELMUT GENAUST, 1999 7 Calla-An Enigmatic Aroid Taxon and Its Etymological Solution

Dr. Helmut Genaust Hansjakobstr.l0 D-79183 Waldkirch, Germany

Until the present time, the genus Calla, and that its species occur almost complete­ described and introduced by Linnaeus in ly in the southern parts of Africa and, 1753, is believed, for the majority of both therefore, were unknown to the ancient botanists and linguists, to be derived from Mediterranean peoples. a Latin plant name calla, presumably at­ If these remarks seem not yet sufficient, tested in the Natural History of Pliny the more important arguments arise from the Elder and meaning the arum lily, water linguistic side. No concrete etymology for arum, or wild calla (Calla palustris). This the taxon Calla can be given before the word should take its origin and significa­ history of the denomination of this mem­ tion from ancient Greek kallaia 'cock's ber of the arum family has been studied in wattles' or more likely, from Greek kallos its decisive steps from the Roman era via 'beauty', as if this Mediterranean member the pre-Linnaean botanists of the Renais­ of the arum family would exhibit an out­ sance until 1753, the year when the taxo­ standing degree of beauty, be the em­ nomic system of plant names is accepted. bodiment of splendor and magnificence That calla cannot be a Latin word-and that we, the friends and freaks of the Ar­ this means, in a stricter definition of the aceae, admire in so many kinds of this term of Latin, that is did not belong to the plant family. language of the ancient Roman Empire, is That this cannot be reasonably accept­ very quickly shown by a glance into any ed, may be clearly demonstrated as well complete and reliable present-day Latin from the botanic as from the linguistic dictionary where a term like that is lack­ point of view. ing. As early as in the first edition of my As to the botanical aspect, nobody will Etymologisches W6rterbuch der botanisch­ deny that Calla palustris is, with its white en Pjlanzennamen, published in 1976, I spathe and green pistils, in some way a left no doubt that, contrarily to the com­ nice, even attractive plant, especially for mon opinion, Calla could not be derived hungry insects and slugs, but in no case it from a similar Latin form and that, there­ reaches that degree of beauty which has fore, neither Pliny nor any other ancient been accorded to the white lily or the lotus author could have given, for any member flower, for instance, or selected members of the Araceae, an expression of the name of the arum family representing ornamen­ calla or kalla. These doubts found the first tal plants. Among them, we find another support by Dan H. Nicolson, in his contri­ genus (Zantedeschia Sprengel) generally bution Derivation ofAroid Generic Names bearing the common name calla, in En­ (Aroideana 10, No.3, 1987, published July glish 'calla lily or arum lily' or in German 1988, p. 18). Nicolson confirms that the Zimmerkalla ('chamber calla'), thus distin­ taxon Calla is at least of unknown origin, guished from Sumpfkalla ('swamp calla'­ speculations about its derivation involving Calla palustris). But there is no evidence less likely such usually presented etymol­ that this common name of the ornamental ogies like those quoted above. But there plants is taken from Greek kallos, consid­ was some evidence that, according to Cas­ ering the fact that the genus Zantedeschia par Bauhin, Pliny used a similar term for has been separated from the genus Calla denOminating two kinds of aroids. 8 AROIDEANA, Vol. 22

posing ways to a possible solution based on the morphological characteristics of Calla palustris. But even when there may have existed a link to the name of the cal­ mus (Acorus calamus). this solution does not completely satisfy because the pho­ netic problems are not sufficiently clari­ fied. On the basis of new documents I re­ ceived in 1997, by courtesy of Josef Bog­ ner (Munich),a better light is now thrown Fig. 1. Calla palustris. Photo J. Bogner. upon the pre-Linnaean epoch. The first to mention the arum lily, after the Middle Ages, is Rembertus Dodonaeus 0516/ 17- In the third edition of my Etymologisch­ 1585), in his work Purgantium aliar­ es W6rterbuch der botanischen Pjlanzen­ umque herbarum historiae libri IIII, namen, p. 117, I gave some wider-spread­ published at Antwerp in 1574; but here, he ed reflexions about the enigmatic origin of calls, in chapter VII, the plant Dracuncu­ the genus Calla, including the history of lus aquatilis, referring to Pliny, Nat. hist. early denominations of the plants and ex- 24 , 16, without citing any name like calla.

Fig. 2. Calla palustris. A, habit; B, spadix; C, flower; D, gynoecium, longitudinal section; E, infructescence; F, seed, side view. Taken from Mayo et al., Genera of the Araceae. Drawn by E. Catherine. HELMUT GENAUST, 1999 9

In the posthumous edition of his Stirpium champius and Gronovius) and completed bistoriae pemptades sex (Antwerp 1616), by Franzius (vol. 8, Leipsic, 1788), offers, there is given, in chapter VII, almost the in book XXVII, chapter 36, the following same text. form: Calsa duorum generum est. Una It is, indeed, Caspar Bauhin (1560-1624) similis aro, etc. The commentary is rather who, in his Pinax tbeatri botanici (Bale instructive: calsa is said to be the version 1623), book V, sect. VI, p. 195s., quotes, of all manuscripts, and expressly not calla, for the first time, two kinds of the arum even when there was, just at that time, family under the names of Callae primum some probability that Pliny could have genus Plinii, Dalecb[ampiusj in Plin., re­ written calix, or, in the Greek accusative spectively, which is a form of Arum itati­ case, catica for naming a plant like Ari­ cum with white-veined leaves (venis al­ sarum: "Calicem arisaron vocatum juisse bis), and Callae alterum genus Ptinii, Dal­ arbitror, quod eius jructus calice con­ ecb[ampius], which corresponds to Arisa­ uoluatur membranoso" (I think that ari­ rum vulgare. For the present-day user, it saron has been named calix, for its spadix is necessary to know that Caspar Bauhin is enveloped in a membraneous calyx or lists, in Pinax, the mass of synonyms flower-cup), is cited as the opinion of Da­ which existed already at his epoch for lechamps. The last to give Calla as a Pli­ more than 6,000 species of plants. Thus, nian word form ("ubi Hard. legit Calsa", Calia, the nominative case of Callae, is where Harduinus is reading calsa) is Jo­ only one of those numerous synonyms. hannes Beckmann, in his Lexicon Botani­ Contrarily, in the Horti academici Lug­ cum, published in 1801 (p. 44). duno-Batavi catalogus (Leyden 1687), The reasonable ideas formulated in Har­ one of the last important botanical indices duinus' commentary obviously opened the written before Linnaeus, Paulus Herman­ way to the search of the correct ancient nus (1640-1695) renounces to mention, reading and to a convincing solution of its when citing Dodonaeus and Caspar Bau­ etymology. According to the well-founded hin, the synonymous term Calla; he pre­ work of Jacques Andre, Les noms de plan­ fers Arum palustre, radice arundinacea, tes dans la Rome antique (Paris 1985), the for to name Calla palustris. best word form is now the nominative So, it is definitively Linnaeus himself case calyx, transcription of Greek kdlyx who, in his great work of classifying the and identical with calyx still used by En­ realm of plants, created Calla as a new ar­ glish-speaking botanists as a term for the oid generic taxon, separating it from other floral envelope. In the first citation (Plin. genera like Arum, Arisarum, Dracontium, 27, 36), calyx is defined, by Andre, as ei­ or Dracunculus. From that time on, the ther Arisarum vulgare or Arisarum pro­ old synonym Calla as used by Jacques boscideum, aroids known from the Medi­ Dalechamps and cited as a Plinian word, terranean region. ranks, even today, as an official taxon. But As to the etymology, doubts are no lon­ the question is: What did Pliny really write, ger useful. The genus Arisarum has got its and did Linnaeus quote his books? Yes, he ancient Latin name calyx in regard to its did, but the extant editions of Pliny of­ conspicuous spatha which envelops the fered, at least half a century before the be­ spadix like a hood (whence the French ginning of the painstaking work of critical name capucbon), or, as a parallel to other text presentation in Classical Philology as plant families, like a large calyx protecting a new linguistic science, word forms that the inflorescence. And as demonstrated did not satisfy the modern demands. above, evidence is given to the way how As an example, the edition of Pliny Calla got its modern generic name which, commented by Johannes Harduinus (in­ now, should have lost the status of an cluding remarks of botanists like Dale- enigmatic aroid taxon.