Kew Rule

rdf:langString Kew Rule

rdf:langString September 2013

rdf:langString needs discussion of the American Code and of the confused period when the international code was somewhat ignored

rdf:langString The Kew Rule was used by some authors to determine the application of synonymous names in botanical nomenclature up to about 1906, but was and still is contrary to codes of botanical nomenclature including the International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants. Index Kewensis, a publication that aimed to list all botanical names for seed plants at the ranks of species and genus, used the Kew Rule until its Supplement IV was published in 1913 (prepared 1906–1910). The Kew Rule applied rules of priority in a more flexible way, so that when transferring a species to a new genus, there was no requirement to retain the epithet of the original species name, and future priority of the new name was counted from the time the species was transferred to the new genus. The effect has been summarized as "nomenclature used by an established monographer or in a major publication should be adopted". This is contrary to the modern article 11.4 of the Code of Nomenclature.