Botanical Latin

[Thomas G. Lammers]

When asked why botanists persist in requiring a Latin description or
diagnosis to validate publication of a name for a new taxon, I reply
(somewhat tongue-in-cheek) that using Latin levels the playing field.
Because no one speaks it any longer as his or her primary language, all
taxonomists everywhere are at the same disadvantage in dealing with it.
(Although those whose language is not customarily rendered in the Roman
alphabet may feel that they are still at some disadvantage.)  I think it
also serves to prevent "accidental" validations.  Were English diagnoses
permitted, validation could conceivably be achieved by an off-hand published
comment like, "This new species, which Prof. Descriptor plans to name Planta
rubra, differs from other members of its group in its big red flowers."  And
then there is the whole matter of tradition ....



Thomas G. Lammers

Classification, Nomenclature, Phylogeny and Biogeography
of the Campanulaceae, s. lat.

Department of Botany
Field Museum of Natural History
Roosevelt Road at Lake Shore Drive
Chicago, Illinois 60605-2496 USA

e-mail:    tlammers at fmnh.org
office:          312-922-9410 ext. 317 (voice-mail)
fax:                312-427-2530

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"The most important thing to learn is how
   to teach yourself.  Everything else ...
   is just detail."
                                  -- Patrick Gibson