PLANT N OMENCXATTTRE : SOME SUGGESTIONS 157 



GENERIC "NOMINA CONSERVANDA." 



8. All generic names recommended in the future as " nomina 

 conservanda " should be accompanied in each case by a summary of 

 the generic history, and a statement of the reasons for and against 

 the retention of the name. 



The principle underlying 1 the acceptance of " nomina conservanda " 

 is of a common-sense nature : that there should be as little dis- 

 turbance as possible in the present system of nomenclature. With 

 this end in view, numerous well-known and much used names have 

 been preserved in spite of the existence of prior names for the 

 same genera. It seems to have been tacitly assumed by those who 

 voted in favour of Art. 20 that all " nomina conservanda " should be 

 valid in themselves, apart from the existence of prior names. Yet 

 the generic name Alsine was proposed for retention at the Brussels 

 Congress to denote a genus, Minuartia, which was not included in 

 Alsine as originally published. Alsine Linn. (1753) was composed 

 of Stellaria and Spergularia. It was not until 17(52 that a species 

 of Minuartia was added. Opinions may differ as to whether Stel- 

 laria media or Spergularia segetalis is the type of Alsine Linn, 

 (see Britton in Bull. Torr. Bot. CI. 1893, xx. 277 ; Sprague in Kew 

 Bull. 1920, 316; Hiern in Journ. Bot. 1899, 317; Fernald in 

 Rhodora, 1919, xxi. 7) ; but under no rules of nomenclature can the 

 Linnean name be applied to Minuartia. Had the history of Alsine 

 been carefully studied, this name would hardly have been proposed as 

 a " nomen conservandum." 



ORTHOGRAPHY AND TYPOGRAPHY. 



9. The genders of generic names should be determined in accord- 

 ance with definite rules. Observance of this recommendation would 

 remove a cause of offence to classical scholars, who complain with 

 more or less reason of " grammatical blunders and false concords 

 which disfigure botanical nomenclature" (Journ. Roy. Hort. Soc. 

 xlv. 220). 



A. The gender of a classical generic name should be retained, 

 provided that the termination is either unchanged or merely latinized. 

 Where the name occurs in both Greek and Latin, and the gender is 

 different in the two languages, the Latin gender should be retained, 

 Pliny's Natural History being taken as a standard. In the case of a 

 new name formed from Greek or Latin words the classical gender of 

 the final word should be retained, except in the case of compounds 

 ending in -anthus (see 9D). 



Examples : — JEuonymus should be masculine, although all the 

 species are trees or shrubs. Erigeron should be masculine, although 

 it was treated as neuter by Linnaeus in Sp. PL ed. 1. Didgmocarpus 

 (o Kapiros) should be masculine, although generally treated as feminine. 

 Tragopogon ( 6 7rwywf) should be masculine, in spite of the fact that 

 Linnaeus regarded it as neuter. Ehodochiton (b ^i-wi) should be 

 masculine, not neuter. Moras is feminine. Saprosma (// vafjuj) 

 should be feminine, although Blume treated it as neuter. Diastema 

 (to (7Ti]fx<i) should be neuter, although Bentham, who proposed the 

 name, made it feminine. Lissochilus (to xeiAoi) should be neuter, 



