In article ,
K writes:
| Stewart Robert Hinsley writes
| In message
|
| That's not completely true - several descriptive family names were
| grandfathered in as legitimate alternatives to names based on genera.
| Leguminosae and Compositae are among them. (The use of these
| descriptive family names is less frequent than it used to be, but it's
| still legitimate.)
|
| There's are also a few family names based on genus names that are not
| currently recognised, e.g. Caryophyllaceae, Fabaceae, and Theaceae,
| and, if I recall correctly, Cactaceae.
|
| I thought part of the reasoning was that it would be helpful if all the
| family names had the same end, so that you knew that ...aceae was a
| family (and if it wasn't ..aceae then it wasn't a family)? It was that
| that did for Compositae and Umbelliferae.

That was an excuse, not a reason. If it were a reason, then the new,
recommended name could have been Compositaceae - which would have
been instantly recognisable (and memorable).


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.