NATURE to save taxonomy!

[veldkamp]

NATURE obviously has no idea what it is talking about: The CD-ROM of the
Index kewensis shows that at least for flowering plants in its long history
this Journal published only 9 new taxa, the last one in 1946...

During the last Botanical Congress in St. Louis (1999) the idea of central
registration of botanical names in view of the preceding commotion, papers
and meetings was surprisingly briefly discussed. Here at least were
hundreds of people with real, hands-on experience, and they didn't like the
idea at all. All proposals were roundly defeated, and now Nature wants to
start another round?

This is going to be interesting, although tedious to have all the arguments
pro and contra repeated.

JeF
Dr. J.F. Veldkamp
Nationaal Herbarium Nederland, Universiteit Leiden branch
POB 9514
2300 RA Leiden
The Netherlands
e-mail: veldkamp at nhn.leidenuniv.nl
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