[Taxacom] Stewartia or Stuartia (Theaceae)?

[Paul van Rijckevorsel]

From: "Boggan, John" <BOGGANJ at si.edu>
> Unfortunately at least one extremely influential institution (Kew) has
> apparently thrown its weight behind "Stuartia",

***
A strange assumption. Where did Kew do that?
* * *

> and this is the spelling
> used in the Kew Record of Taxonomic Literature and in Brummit's
> "Vascular Plant Families and Genera".

***
So, Brummitt (note the double -tt) wrote a book using the spelling
/Stuartia/, in 1992. This is not particularly recent.

The  Kew Record of Taxonomic Literature indexes literature. It uses
both the spelling /Stewartia/ (28 hits) and /Stuartia/ (2 hits). All cases
using the latter spelling are also indexed under the other spelling.

***
> I do think that the Code provides
> insufficient guidance on the matter [...] and conservation of one spelling
> over the other will eventually be necessary to settle this once and for
> all.

* * *
Anybody who feels that way could bring a proposal to conserve /Stewartia/ in
the spelling /Stuartia/. However, the ICBN requires: "Any proposal of an
additional name must be accompanied by a detailed statement of the cases
both for and against its conservation. " And, as I wrote earlier, "I don't
see that there is much to write up" in the way of a case FOR conservation of
the spelling /Stuartia/.

Submitting such a proposal, devoid of substance, looks to me like an
improper use of resources, to put it mildly.
Paul