View A43-1112-1979-eng.pdf

NOMENCLATURE
NOMENCLATURE
Undoubtedly one of the things that discourage the amateur from taking
up the study of fungi is the difficulty of mastering the names. Relatively few
species have common or vernacular names and attempts to create common
names for them by translating the Latin names have not been very successful.
In reahty the Latin names are not so difficult as w^ould first appear and after a
little experience in associating them with actual specimens they become as
famihar as do the Latin names of common flowers to enthusiastic gardeners.
Obviously we must apply names to fungi and other plants in order to
refer to them and, since fungi do not recognize national boundaries, some
system of naming must be followed that can be used by scientists of all coun-
tries. The system that has been adopted was devised by the Swedish botanist
Carl Linnaeus in the eighteenth century and is called the binomial system of
nomenclature. In this system individual plants that are considered to be of
the same kind are grouped together to form a species, related species are
placed in a genus, related genera in a family, related famihes in an order,
related orders in a class, and related classes in a division. The whole hierarchy
constitutes the plant kingdom.
The name of any individual plant consists of two words, the name of the
genus and the name of the species, the latter usually a descriptive adjective.
When we name a plant in this way we are at the same time classifying it in
relation to other plants. Our knowledge of the relationships of plants to each
other is continually increasing so that our ideas about the classification of
plants change accordingly and this leads inevitably to changes of the names.
Ideally, of course, one species should have one correct name, but as long
as our system of classification is imperfect and the relationships of plants not
fully understood, botanists will diff^er in their ideas about the classification and
relationships and so will diff*er in their choice of names. Furthermore, many
niistakes can and do occur with resultant confusion concerning names. Some
common errors of this type arise from diff'erent botanists describing the same
plant under diff'erent names or describing diff'erent plants under the same
name, or applying a name to a diff'erent plant from that intended by the
original author. In order to settle disputes and clear up confusion of this sort,
it is necessary for botanists to agree on a set of rules determining the choice of
a name.
From time to time botanists hold an international congress and the
authority of this body is generally recognized in the drawing up of a set of
rules of nomenclature and in making revisions deemed necessary. The official
title of the set of rules is now the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature.
The Code has nothing to do with classification. Each botanist is free to
study a plant and come to a decision himself regarding its relationships with
other plants, but when he has reached such a decision the Code determines the
correct name to use for the plant. It is impossible to discuss the Code in any
detail here, but some of the more important rules might be noted.
19