Re: New content on the IAS Web site

From: Al Wootten awootten at NRAO.EDU> on 2001.04.12 at 20:46:09(6179) Wilbert Hetterscheid writes: > You may want to correct the linkname Typhonium peduncleatum to Typhonium > pedunculatum. I know, those darn plant names......WHO the hell creates those > things without prior acceptance by plant enthusiasts....... ??????!!!!!!! Taxonomy was the subject of an interesting article in Science Vol 291 No 5512 p2304 entitled "Linnaeus's Last Stand". It reports a then-impending (30-31 March) Sympsoium in D. C. on a new system for classification which the call 'PhyloCode'. Under this proposal, "which seeks to reflect phylogenetic relationships, genus names could be lost, species names shortened, hyphenated with former genus descriptor, or given a numeric designation. The critics are not happy." The article is extensive and interesting (though I can imagine this proposal's acceptance in aroid-l would be scant). The article concludes with the note that over the next several years, we will probably find researchers naming organisms with both approaches. Some argue for a complete break with traditional names to avoid confusion. +More I haven't seen a followup article. There was an interesting article on seed longevity on p. 1884 of the same volume, two weeks earlier issue. The focus is on the Beal experiment at MSU, in which seeds buried in a bottle in 1879 are periocially unearthed for germination tests. For some species (Verbascum blattaria), the seeds continue to sprout and probably will until the bottles run out in 2100 (by which time no one may recall what Verbascum blattaria once meant). The article reports the oldest reported viable seed as a 1450 year old sacred lotus seed. Clear skies, Al

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