Hey, wwh. When checking out whether sweet gum and black gum should be one or two words, I came across another botanical listing in which you can list beginnings of genus and species.

For instance, if you wanted to track down Quercus alba--and understand just the derivation of 'Quercus,' you wouldn't enter 'Quercus,' but just 'quer'. This lexicon will trace all the 'quer' words.

Here's the url, worth at least a quick browse:

http://www.cgriffith.net/SearchBases

Dear WW: I'll have to do some cogitation before I can use that site. I don't know enough to ask the right questions.
Incidentally, those sweet gum burrs (I think that's the word) threaten to make me take a tumble, now that so many leaves have fallen and they are hidden. I'm so unsteady on my feet because nerve injury from collapsed intervertebral disc and just plain stenosis (narrowing of places where nerves exit spine) that I lack sensation and strength in my lower legs. I wish the squirrels worked harder on them. Before so many leaves fell, the wind would roll them off the pavement. But now they get trapped under the leaves.