Abstract Key Word?

[Timothy S. Ross]

        I just saw Curtis Clark's message and felt that I needed to clarify
something.  He wrote:

>Maybe this is a difference between the zoological code and the botanical
>code, but in the botanical code something is "new" only if it never existed
>before, and clearly in this case it did.  If you were to make such a "new
>combination", who would be the author?  You, or the person who originally
>described it?  For example:
>
>    Ivieia neocalifornica Ross, 1804
>
>moved to Xantusia by Edward D. Cope, as
>
>    Xantusia neocalifornica (Ross), 1875
>
>Now you're "moving it back" to Ivieia.  Is it
>
>    Ivieia neocalifornica Ross, 1804 [the original name]
>
>as I contend, or
>
>    Ivieia neocalifornica (Ross) [Hubbard], 1996
>
>as you seem to imply?

        Actually, it may be neither.  I was at a yard sale a couple of
years ago and bought a REALLY old dusty box of journals.  One of them was
old a very obscure journal (circulation 7 people, I believe) in which the
name Ivieia neocalifornica was usurped by B.A.Nutt in an article published
in (1802), hence that name has priority for another obscure taxon.  A
zoologist buddy and I thought that we could write an article to conserve
Ivieia neocalifornica Ross (1804) over Ivieia neocalifornica B.A.Nutt
(1802), but then decided that that made too much sense.  Consequently we
are submitting a manuscript to the journal XANTUSION in which we propose
Ivieia sarcastica Knickers & T.S.Ross, nomen novum (1996) [=I.
neocalifornica Ross (1804), non B.A.Nutt (1802)].  There is also a long
list of other applicable synonyms, but we were too darned lazy to actually
research the thing very much.  I think one of the synonyms was Nudge-nudgea
wink-winkii M.Python (1971).
                                        Tim.

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TIMOTHY S. ROSS
Sr. Curatorial Asst.
RSA-POM Herbarium
Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden
1500 North College Avenue
Claremont, CA 91711, U.S.A.
(909) 625-8767 ext. 233
FAX (909) 626-7670
rosst at cgs.edu

"At the end of a fortnight, I fired myself for willful incompetence."
              -- Donald Culross Peattie (The Road of a Naturalist, 1941)
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