PRESIDENT BEST: Is there any discussion?
DR. CRANE: I wanted to suggest that the motion should provide that the committee use the rules of nomenclature approved by the American Pomological Society.
DR. MACDANIEL: I will accept that amendment, Mr. President.
(A vote was taken on the amendment, and was passed.)
MR. MACHOVINA: Is that a proposal to amend the by-laws of this organization? It would, if it's a self-perpetuating committee.
MR. DAVIDSON: May I suggest you withdraw the word "self-perpetuating."
The idea, Mr. Best, was to make this a permanent committee, if possible.
That was the reason for putting that word in there, but if it is an
abridgment of the constitution, we don't want to do it, of course.
MR. KINTZEL: I'd like to know what the rules of nomenclature of the
American Pomological Society are.
DR. MACDANIEL: The rules cover about two pages. I can give you the gist of it, I think. One provision is that the discoverer or introducer of a new variety has the privilege of selecting a name for it. Another rule is that it shall not duplicate a name given previously for a variety of the same class of fruit or nut. The name should preferably be one word or, at most, two words, without hyphens, without possessives. That a nut not be named for a person without his permission during his lifetime. That covers the meat of it.
MR. CHASE: Such a committee would give official status and recognition to your discovery. I believe it would prevent, on a large scale, such things as this Morning Star hardy English walnut. In other words, we'd have a committee to examine a nut sample from your tree, anybody's tree, pass on it and see that the name that you select meets the requirements of this American Pomological Society's rules of nomenclature, which are quite reasonable. I think it is an excellent step that we should take at this time.
MR. CALDWELL: Mr. President. The variety we are using is not a variety, it's a clone. Maybe we had better get together with taxonomists and botanists. That's all they are, selections, they are not varieties, in the botanical sense, even though the term has been badly misused by the nut growers. I don't see why we should continue with mis-application of a term just because somebody set up rules for application of names.