Bacteria and Viruses 105 



Recommendations 27a, 27b, 27c. Orthography and Gender of Names 



RECOMMENDATION 27a. When a name or epithet for use in bacteriological 

 nomenclature is derived from a Greek word, the transliteration to Latin 

 form should conform to classic usage. Appendix A (q.v.) to this Code may 

 be used as a guide. If a later author corrects in a valid publication the 

 spelling of a name or epithet incorrectly transliterated from the Greek, the 

 correctly spelled word may be regarded as an orthographic variant of the 

 name or epithet. 



RECOMMENDATION 27b. When it is necessary to choose between words 

 which have been validly published as names of taxa or as specific or sub- 

 specific epithets and which differ in spelling only because of faulty or 

 alternative transliterations of Greek to Latin, or because of alternative 

 transfer of endings denoting gender or oblique cases (particularly the geni- 

 tive) from Greek to Latin, it is recommended that choices be governed by 

 the provisions of Appendix A to this Code, (q.v.). 



RECOMMENDATION 27c. For scientific names of taxa it is advisable to use 

 another font from that used for the remainder of the text, or to space the 

 letters, or to use some similar device appropriate to the text. 

 Typewritten scientific names should be underlined. 



ANNOTATIONS 



Recommejidation 27c. Generally in biology it is customary to print 

 names of genera and species using a different type from that used 

 in the body of the text. The most common device is the use of italics 

 [Bacillus siihtilis) . Occasionally bold face type is used (Bacillus 

 subtilis). Another device employed is to increase the space between 

 letters (Bacillus subtilis); this is common in Ger- 

 man publications. 



The Zoological Rules recommend the use of some type other than 

 that used for the text. However, Follett (1955) in a footnote sug- 

 gests that the zoological Recommendation "should expressly exclude 

 the name of any suprageneric category." Many authors in zoology use 

 italics only for names of species and subspecies, not for names of 

 families, orders, etc. 



The International Code of Botanical Nomenclature adopted by 

 the Eighth International Botanical Congress, Paris 1954 (published 

 1956) , uniformly uses "another font than that used for the remainder 

 of the text," for the names of all taxa, not only for names of species, 

 but also for the names of genera and all suprageneric taxa. In some 

 paragraph headings the names are in capitals, in all other places the 

 names of taxa are in italics. However, in Articles 73 and 74 dealing 

 with "Orthography of Names and Epithets," there are no directives or 

 recommendations for such use. 



In practice, some botanists and botanical journals use italics (or 

 other distinctive type) for names of species but roman type for names 

 of higher groups. 



