Re: SHOW: Deciding What Constitutes "Introduction"

In a message dated 1/5/00 11:47:49 PM Eastern Standard Time, 
jcwalters@bridgernet.com writes:

<<Hasn't the AIS "always" been the registering body for rhizomatous irises?>>

Anner, as Lloyd says, just chiming in:
 
"Always?" 

De facto, maybe, but, as far as I have been able to determine to date, not 
officially under the terms of the ICBN until the 'fifties, although I believe 
it was generally accepted that AIS had the matter in hand before that time. 

The first conferences which resulted in the international treaties on 
nomenclature convened around 1905-10, and the very earliest AIS Check Lists 
were compiled for inclusion in the book Standardized Plant Names, by Olmsted, 
Coville & Kelsey, which was published in 1923 by the American Joint Committee 
on Horticultural Nomenclature, a work reflecting concerns arising from the 
work of the conferences.

However, many of the irises in the earliest Check Lists, which were subsumed 
into the 1929, and later into the 1939, cannot be said to have been 
"registered" or "introduced" as we understand the terms today. Names of those 
irises which predate the formation of AIS, to use a convenient date, were 
rounded up by researchers in AIS from many diverse published sources: 
catalogs, articles, books, some of them of considerable antiquity, with 
authority given to the first published instance of the name. Efforts were 
made to find as many names as possible, and then heroic efforts were made to 
sort out duplicates, synonyms, and confusion of all sorts, even to growing 
fields of plants and comparing them bloom by bloom. Gradually the current 
hybridizers were coerced into complying with the system of registration that 
developed into what we know. Only when one comes to realize that the early 
Check Lists were compiled in no small part from pure plodding research can 
one appreciate what an astonishing achievement they were.  

Anner Whitehead
HIPSource@aol.com

--------------------------- ONElist Sponsor ----------------------------

Get great offers on top-notch products that match your interests!
Sign up for eLerts at:
<a href=" http://clickme.onelist.com/ad/elerts1 ">Click Here</a>

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Other Mailing lists | Author Index | Date Index | Subject Index | Thread Index