Northern Nut Growers Association Report of the Proceedings at the 44th Annual Meeting: Rochester, N.Y. August 31 and September 1, 1953
Science
Northern Nut Growers Association Report of the Proceedings at the 44th Annual Meeting: Rochester, N.Y. August 31 and September 1, 1953
Northern Nut Growers Association -- Periodicals; Nut trees -- Periodicals; Nuts -- Periodicals
In the Code, it is recommended that "garden varieties" should
technically be called "cultivars." This has been their official name for
many years and it is clearly desirable, if the two categories of "wild"
and "cultivated" varieties are to be recognized, to have a short and
internationally current word for each of them. "Variety" and "cultivar"
serve this purpose admirably, but it is not to be expected that all
gardeners will make the distinction and adopt the word "cultivar" in
ordinary parlance, at any rate immediately. Personally, however, I hope
and believe that eventually "cultivar" will find favour. It is a clear
and easily understood word and will, I think, prove useful to those
gardeners who care for accuracy and precision in their craft, and
especially to those who have dealings with fellow-gardeners in other
countries.
The Code, then, deals with the _names of cultivars_. It may be helpful,
I think, to consider its rules and regulations under three headings:
firstly, those of interest to all gardeners who have occasion to write
the names of cultivars; secondly, those which are concerned with the
coining of new names; and thirdly, those more technical provisions which
are of interest primarily to horticulturists studying a particular group
and trying to establish what are the correct names for its cultivars.
1. The Writing of Cultivar-Names
The most important point, perhaps, concerning the names of cultivars is
that they should not be in Latin, but in any modern language using the
so-called Roman alphabet (_i.e._ the alphabet in which English, French,
German, etc., are written). The reason for this is, of course, to
distinguish, at a glance, names of cultivars from names of wild
varieties, which are in Latin. In the future, Latin names for cultivars
will definitely not be allowed by the Code, but we are faced with the
_fait accompli_ of hundreds of existing Latin names which have been
widely used for many years. For example: the dwarf conifers abound with
cultivars called 'nana,' 'prostrata,' 'compacta' and the like, and such
names as 'albus,' 'variegatus,' and 'plenus' occur in almost every
cultivated genus. It would clearly be foolish to try to alter all these,
and the Code accepts such legacies from the past as permanently with us.
(As we shall see, however, a distinction is made between the writing of
Latin cultivar-names and Latin varietal-names.)
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account