Italicization of family names

[jr19]

The tradition in biology has been not to italicize suprageneric names, only
those at and below the rank of genus. However, this may be changing in the
botanical world and may be noted in the journal Taxon as well as in the
most recent edition of the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature. In the
preface (p. xii) one finds the following:



The method by which some or all scientific names are set off in printed text
varies substantially between different countries and language traditions.
Perhaps as a result, there has been an unevenness in this regard in
different editions of the Code. In an attempt to achieve uniformity, the
Sydney Code and the Berlin Code italicized all scientific names at the rank
of family and below, i.e. those for which priority is mandatory. The present
Editorial Committee recognized that this policy is rather illogical, and, in
the Tokyo Code, all scientific names falling under the provisions of the
Code are italicized, whereas informatl designations appear in Roman type ...
The Editorial Committee considers this to be the most appropriate form of
presentation in a code of nomenclature but does not aim to impose this as a
standard to be followed in other publications, which may have different
editorial traditions, often of long standing.



Thus, while the Code italicizes names, it is up to tradition and editorial
policy what one ought to do.

James L. Reveal (MARY)