"Botanical tradition"

[Thomas Lammers]

At 03:12 PM 7/20/00 +1000, you wrote:

>Is there anyone out there who can define what the Code (Tokyo, Art. 62.
>Gender of generic names) means when it talks about "botanical tradition"?
>Nowhere is there any attempt to clearly define it, and I'm unable to infer
>it from the text!

Basically, it's the botanical equivalent of your child whining, "But,
Mom!  Everyone else is doing it!"   ; - )

I take it to mean that if most major, respected authors over the first 200
yrs or so of the Linnaean Era (Linnaeus, Candolle, Jussieu, Bentham,
Engler, etc.) did a thing a certain way, there is no sense changing it just
for the sake of slavish devotion to a rule.


Thomas G. Lammers, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor and Curator of the Herbarium (OSH)
Department of Biology and Microbiology
University of Wisconsin Oshkosh
Oshkosh, Wisconsin 54901-8640 USA

e-mail:       lammers at uwosh.edu
phone:      920-424-7085
fax:           920-424-1101

Plant systematics; classification, nomenclature, evolution, and
biogeography of the Campanulaceae s. lat.
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"Today's mighty oak is yesterday's nut that stood his ground."
                                                 -- Anonymous