Spelling. Was: [pbs] Scoliopus

Rodger Whitlock totototo@pacificcoast.net
Wed, 04 Feb 2004 11:13:49 PST
On 31 Jan 04 at 12:22, Jim McKenney wrote:
 
> But I think botanists sometimes go back and change the original
> spellings to make them conform to the spelling used by the eponym. A
> case in point: all my life I've written Crocus tommasinianus. But
> the name is now "officially" changed to respect Signor Tomasini's
> spelling, i.e. with one "m". 
> 
> Because such activity (i.e. spelling changes) is generally well
> below my radar screen, I brought the issue up hoping a practising
> botanist familiar with the Scoliopus and Tulipa questions might
> respond with the details. 
> 
> Any takers?

I'm not completely au courant on the matter, but I believe one fairly 
recent revision of the ICBN (International Code of Botanical 
Nomenclature) decreed that epithets based on non-Latinized names were 
to be spelled as the name itself was spelled. Hence tommasinianus 
became tomasinianus. And bigelovii would become bigelowii, assuming 
the name honors a Bigelow and not a Bigelov. Note that this change 
in spelling is entirely independent of German spelling practice.

However, I think -- I'm not sure -- that this provision was repealed 
in the next revision of the ICBN and we're back to spelling botanical 
epithets as they were when first validly published.

Any professional botanist in the mob to confirm or refute all this?

-- 
Rodger Whitlock
Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
Maritime Zone 8, a cool Mediterranean climate

on beautiful Vancouver Island


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