Binomial elimination

[Stephen P. Rae]

Stephen P. Rae  (srae at community.net)   Research Biologist
    1130 Cayetano Court                Environmental Resource Analyst
    Napa, CA  94559-4137               Bryologist
    USA                                Forester - Land Management Planner
    (707) 255-7546 (residence)
    (707) 257-2487 (MUSCI  -  BITS, BYTES & BUZZWORDS)
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On Fri, 17 Mar 1995, Richard H. Zander wrote:

> Many have complained that eliminating the genus name makes for confusion,
> like eliminating a person's last name. Not so. Say you know somebody named
> Jack. No problem. The *government* has no problem either, since Jack
> is known by his soc. security number. Thus, the tomato is a tomato, unless
> you definitely need to distinguish it from rare, unusual, exotic
> tomato relatives in a scientific paper, at which time you can refer to
> it as tomato (3488966600881-B) as an individual, and place it in the
> group Solanum or Lycopersicon for the benefit of your fellow scientists,
> who are the only ones who might care.
>
> Richard Zander
>
Strictly as a matter of process, how do you see us leading a class on
plant id where we use the name Mustard-123456789?  I know that the
character Ralph 124C was well known in a book, but such a plant name is a
real killer for the novice.  So, now what?