In article ,
Stewart Robert Hinsley writes:
|
| I think that's a very good criterion. When inter-generic hybrids
| are easy to produce, and fertile, that surely is evidence that the
| generic boundaries are too specific?
|
| You might like to consider the implications of that for Orchidaceae. For
| example the hybrid genus ×Adamara is Brassavola x Cattleya x Epidendrum
| x Laelia, so it would seem that at least two pairs of those genera
| produce fertile hybrids.

The implication is obvious: either the generic boundaries should be
accepted to be for the purposes of nomenclature (and so the current
fashion for renaming should be ruled out of order), or all of those
genera should be regarded as one - and possibly a single species.

As is obvious, I regard the first choice as a no-brainer. Linnaeus
and almost all subsequent taxonomists (up until the lunatics took
over the asylum) chose pragmatism in choosing generic and specific
levels over an arbitrary set of dogmatic rules.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.