The Nomenclature of Nut Varieties
GEORGE H. M. LAWRENCE, Bailey Hortorium, Ithaca, N. Y.
This article is intended to introduce to you the International Code of
Nomenclature for Cultivated Plants[6] and to point out the ways in which
that Code serves the interests and needs of members of the Northern Nut
Growers Association.
[6] The International Code of Nomenclature for Cultivated Plants, formulated and adopted by the International Botanical Congress Committee for the Nomenclature of Cultivated Plants and the International Committee on Horticultural Nomenclature and Registration at the Thirteenth International Horticultural Congress, London, September 1952.
Copies of the full text of the Code are available from the Secretary,
American Horticultural Council, Inc., Bailey Hortorium, Cornell
University, Ithaca, N. Y., (25¢ postpaid).
The Code as published by the Royal Horticultural Society is a booklet of about 30 pages, containing an excellent historical introduction by W. T. Stearn, a summary or abridged version of the Code, and the full text. It is of necessity somewhat technical in its phraseology, and in places its jargon is overwhelming. Recently, Dr. John S. L. Gilmour, Director of the Cambridge Botanic Gardens, and formerly Director of the R. H. S. Trial Gardens at Wisley, published a very lucid and down-to-earth interpretation of the principle provisions of the Code. It is reproduced with permission at the conclusion of this introduction.
The questions asked about the Code include,
"What's it got that earlier codes did not have?"
"What's new about it?"
"How does it affect me?"
There are several answers to the first query, but the most significant is that here for the first time we have a Code that represents the thinking of horticulturists from all leading horticultural centers of the world. I was a member of a committee of thirteen (representing 6 countries), that met for nine days in Stockholm in 1950 to prepare and edit the first international draft of this Code. Those of each nationality had met in their country previously, with their own leaders, and had come to this round-table session with fixed ideas of what they wanted. By mid-evening of the first session it became apparent that the Swedes, the Dutch, the British, and the Americans had sent some of their most persuasive, vocative, and determined countrymen to represent them. The Swiss representative restrained himself admirably until after the initial lines had been drawn. It looked then as if there might be several codes, but before recessing several hours later some concessions had been made, and discussion on the more volatile points had been deferred. The differences of opinion were well founded and held with good reason. Some reflected an unawareness of situations in an unrelated horticultural field, e.g., a nurseryman did not know the problems encountered by the Danes in developing so-called varieties of vegetables, or by the American in producing hybrid-corn—each calling for different provisions in the Code, nor could the rose specialist be expected to comprehend the genetic situations encountered in many types of hybridity. One botanist in the group had no appreciation of the intricacies of problems and situations found when trying to name some complex groups of cultigens. Add to these reasons the fact that most of these men were representatives or spokesmen for larger groups or national organizations "back home" and were not authorized to act independently from earlier decisions by those groups, and one can only marvel that at the end of the 9-day period we came up with a detailed and workable draft accepted unanimously, and which was modified in no major respect at the more recently International Horticultural Congress in London.
The period between the Stockholm meeting and the London Congress was utilized to distribute mimeographed copies of the Stockholm draft to horticultural leaders in all countries, to provide opportunity for suggesting changes and new provisions for the Code, and to hold one committee meeting of international level, at London in November 1951. As a result, the present Code is the first truly international regulating guide that has been produced as an aid to persons concerned with the nomenclature of cultivated plants. The individual who may object to some provision of the Code must remember that its presence in the Code has had the support of scores of specialists, representing no less than 16 nations and that there is no part of the Code that was not acceptable to a majority of the delegates of each nation and to the groups representing them. The significance of this international character of the Code is not to be discounted.