A forward about Nuphar

[Paul van Rijckevorsel]

> Would anyone care to inform me why and how Nuphar became a feminine noun?

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A fair amount of detail is given in the proposal to conserve it as neuter
(Taxon 47: 167-169. 1998), which failed (Taxon 49: 267. 2000). The blame is
pinned on a publication in 1956 by Stearn.

An interesting detail is that several databases have changed Nuphar puteorum
to Nuphar puteora, although on the face of it puteorum appears a genitive
plural of puteus ("well", "cistern").
PvR