Re: SPU: New botanical Iris name

In a message dated 2/24/05 9:46:23 AM Eastern Standard Time, 
ChatOWhitehall@aol.com writes:

<< I thought they revised the rules on the use of grex several years ago 
 but I can't recall what the revision was.  I guess you know about all that? 
Is 
 it germane to this situation? I think I read it in that copy of the AHS rag 
 which had all that Art Tucker in it. >>

Okay, since I mentioned this, I thought should dig out the magazine and see 
what it was I thought I might be remembering. 

The source is the MAy/June 1996 issue of 'The American Gardener' which I kept 
for a collection of pieces grouped under the title "Focus: The Name 
Game"--and a sort of neat thing Richard Dufresne wrote about direct scanning flowers. 
The information may be getting stale, but it includes a bibliography, some talk 
of the Cultivated Plant Code, and a bit by Dr. Artur O. Tucker on "Great 
Taxonomic Gaffes." 

The bit I quote below is from Art's piece and may be helpful for someone in 
the context of Bob's question. 

"A species is properly the genus plus a specific epithet [. . . .] because a 
species has two names, it has to be expressed as a binomial [. . . .] To 
further define a species, the authority who first named it is also appended in 
formal botanical usage. 
[. . .] Hybrid species are designated with a multiplication sign "X," 
although the lower case letter "x" may also be used. Peppermint is a hybrid of 
spearmint (Mentha spicata) and watermint (M. aquatica) and is written M. xpiperata. 
Intergeneric hybrids  such as heucherella, a hybrid of the two genera Heuchera 
and Tiarella, have the "x" before the genus; thus the new genus xHeucherella. 
Some nursery catalogs list an "x" before certain cultivar names. I am not 
sure what this really means; the International Code of nomenclature for 
cultivated plants does not allow the use of "x" before a cultivar name."    

Cordially,

Anner Whitehead
Richmond VA USA

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