In message , Nick Maclaren
writes
| There is a pragmatic rule for species as well, if you're talking about
| conservation of widely used names over earlier published names. For
| example Adansonia gregori (the Australian baobab) is conserved over
| Adansonia gibbosa, and Luehea speciosa over Luehea alternifolia.

When was that introduced? And is it sufficiently flexible to cancel
that damn-fool V. farreri and similar namings?

I don't know when it was introduced.

I doubt that the relevant committee would reverse a 40 year old name
change. But, if I understand the situation with Vibernum dubium,
fragrans and farreri (Viburnum fragans Loisel. a rarely used synonym of
Viburnum dubium, and an early homonym of the widely used Viburnum
fragrans Bunge), a proposal for conservation in a similar situation
would probably pass nowadays.

The orphan plant Cedrela alternifolia (it was known not to be a Cedrela,
but no-one knew what it really was) was recently identified as a
specimen of the plant known as Luehea speciosa, thus making, as C.
alternatifolia was the earlier name, L. alternifolia the correct name.
However in the meantime everyone had used L. speciosa, even if most of
the usage was confined to botanical manuals (e.g. De Candolle's
Prodromus) and Neotropical floras (e.g. Martius' Flora Brasiliensis).
--
Stewart Robert Hinsley