(110–114) Proposals to delete Articles 18.5, 18.6 and 19.7, replacing them with three Notes, and to provide consequent changes to App. IIB and to Articles 10.6, 11.1, 18.1, and 19.4

Abstract

As per Art. 18.5 of the International code of botanical nomenclature (ICBN) (McNeill & al. in Regnum Veg. 146. 2006), names of certain families which do not agree with the accepted termination (-aceae) of family names are treated as validly published and alternative names ending in -aceae are given in parenthesis. As per the Art. 18.6, the use as alternatives of these family names indicated in parentheses in Art. 18.5 is authorized. The origin of the first component of these rules goes back to Art. 22 3º of Candolle’s Lois de la nomenclature botanique of 1867. In the Vienna rules (Briquet, Règles Int. Nomencl. Bot. 1906), it appeared as Art. 22 that reads: “The following names, owing to long usage, are anexception to the rule: Palmae, Gramineae, Cruciferae, Leguminosae, Guttiferae, Umbelliferae, Labiatae, Compositae”. Principle IV of the ICBN states that each taxonomic group with a particular circumscription, position, and rank can bear only one correct name, the earliest that is in accordance with the Rules, except in specified cases. However, the Cambridge Congress of 1930 introduced the second component of these rules authorizing botanists “to use as alternatives the appropriate names ending in -aceae” (cf. Art. 23 of the “Cambridge rules” (Briquet & al. Int. Rules Bot. Nomencl., ed. 3. 1935). This became the present Arts. 18.5 and 18.6 in the Leningrad Code (Stafleu & al. in Regnum Veg. 97. 1978). Nearly 80 years have passed since the first authorization of alternative names, several generations of taxonomists have passed, several floras have been written, and the freedom to use either of those family names still remains. A perusal of the various floras including local, district, national, and regional so far published revealed that the family names with both regular and irregular terminations which are treated as validly published and listed under Art. 18.5 are used, sometimes without any uniformity and consistency. Listing the names of all such floras with such use of names would consume much space and hence is not provided here.