International Character of Botanical Nomenclature

The main trend in botanical nomenclature since 1753 has , as stated above, been toward increasing standardization .This is sorely needed any science of classification and naming .After Linnaeus ,certain outstanding botanists exerted such influence that many of their own ideas and practices were more or less widely followed by those working in the plant sciences .In 1813, Augustin de Candolle (11) published his " Theorie Elementaire de la Botanique ," in which organography and nomenclature were throughly discussed and which ser forth such clear procedures for the handling of nomenclatural matters that ser forth such clear procedures for the handling or nomenclatural matters that set forth such clear procedures for the handling of nomenclatural matters that his ideas served ,fifty years ,as a partial basis for his son's (Alphonse de Candolle) " Lois de la Nomenclature Botanique " (10).

Steudel (30) in 1821 published the first important index to the names of phanerogamic plants : " Nomenclator Botanicus ," including all existing technical names and their synonyms .A second edition appeared in 1841. These indexes were the forerunners of the " Index Kewensis ," a listing of all Latin binomials and their synoyms , started in 1895 and kept up-to-date through the publication of supplements ,usually every five years . This Index is edited the publication of supplements ,usually every five years. This Index is edited in the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew. A similar index in card form ,the " Gray Card Index ," has been published at the Gray Herbarium or Harvard University since the 1890's . It includes the names of only New World plants and differs from the " Index Kewensis " by including new varieties and forms as well as species and genera.

With the growth in complexity and the geographic extension of taxonomy and nomenclatural studies ,it became apparent about a century ago that the only way in which the vast body of knowledge in this field could be integrated under a standardized nomenclature was by creating an international system acceptable to botanists everywhere . It was Alphonse de Candolle who spearheaded the movement that led finally in 1867 to the First International Botanical Congress in Paris .This group of 150 botanists voted to adopt de Candolle's (10) " Lois de la Nomenclature of Botanique " as the best guide for nomenclature in the Vegetable Kingdom.

A few years thereafter , a group of American botanists, under the leadership of botanists at the New York Botanical Garden ,formulated a set of rules which they believed to be more appropriate to the Rochester Code.Note all American botanists followed them (e.g., those at Harvard adhered to the European Code).

In 1905 ,the Third International Botanical Congress met in Vienna and mede substantial headway in modifying and amplifying for the growing secience the Paris Code of 1867.The advocates of the Rochester Code remained adamant , however ,and went ahead to propound the so-called American Code (a modification of the Rochester Code), which they published in 1907.

The utilization of two Codes -the European or International and the so called American -led to many points of misunderstanding and sometimes even to chaos in what had long since become a truly international science . It was not until 1930 when ,at the Congress held in Cambridge ,England ,the best of the two stystems was combined in the International Rules of Botanical Nomenclature .These rules , slightly modified by several succeeding international botanical congresses , are now the basis for nomenclatural work in botany the world over. As George H.M.A. Lawrence (18) has so succinctly stated of the 1930 Cambridge Congress : " For the first time in botanical history ,a code of nomenclature came into being that was international in function as well as in name" .