Spelling. Was: [pbs] Scoliopus
Rodger Whitlock (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However, I think -- I'm not sure -- that this provision was repealed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