Weirdness of ICBN

Curtis Clark jcclark at CSUPOMONA.EDU
Thu Jan 4 17:58:46 CST 1996


At 08:36 PM 1/4/96 -0500, jr19 wrote:
>If one is "concerned" with a trinomial, only the author of the final epithet
>need be given. This article does not state that to include the name of the
>author of the species is prohibited; in fact it states nothing at all.
>
>If one is dealing with a series of unrelated names it might be useful to write
>Eriogonum umbellatum Torr. var. majus Hook., but what is necessary according
>to Art. 46 is only E. umbellatum var. majus Hook.
>
>Thus, one can use both forms if one wishes, but only the latter is necessary.
>Editors often determine which format one is permitted to use, and Taxon
>editors have taken their's.

Whew!  My memory *did* serve me, at least partially.  I kind of see the
point of the Taxon editors choosing that route, since one would never write,
for example, _Encelia_ Scopoli _canescens_ Lam., but it's nice to know that
the *code* still lets me include the author of the species.

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