Re: spelling

Jan Schlauer (zxmsl01@studserv.zdv.uni-tuebingen.de)
Thu, 7 Apr 1994 12:55:02 +0100

Barry,

>>Nothing is wrong with Sarracenias (or Sarracenia species, but this is a
>>little ambiguous, isn't it, Barry?) on this list. Either the people do know
>
>I don't see why this is ambiguous. Just as long as it is used properly, i.e.
>
>``All the _Sarracenia_ species require dormancy periods, and this is
>especially true for the _Sarracenia_ hybrids involving _S.purpurea ssp.
>purpurea_ as a parent.''
>
>What's ambiguous in this usage?

Nothing, if it is done as properly as in your short example (using
clarifying additions like "all", "some", "a few", etc.).

>>_Genliseae_ (Barry, why is this so messy? Remember Lentibulariaceae)
>
>Part of my objection is that I think (perhaps incorrectly) of the genus
>and species as a unique identifier of the plant taxon.

This is correct. In this case (this is the scientific literature format),
the name is used in the singular form, which actually means the whole
taxon, i.e. all individuals, and all taxa included in this taxon at lower
rank.

> Modifying this identifier is opening the situation for confusion,

Not necessarily -

> especially since the
>ending letters in nomenclature are used to code the rank of the
>taxonomic division, i.e. -aceae=family, and so on with -ales etc.

- the "ending letters" used in systematics above generic rank are in fact
suffixes with defined meanings, not just plain plural forms. So this does
not exclude the usage of the Latin plural form for several individuals of
one taxon within colloquial text (I recommend the standard singular form in
scientific text, v.s.).

But I think the problem is not such a serious one that we should start
lengthy debates, or even found dogmata on it. As I stated above, I can live
very well with Sarracenias (although I like _Sarraceniae_ better).

Kind regards
Jan