Linnean Name

[David W Wheat]

Colin Cracknell (colinc at cix.compulink.co.uk) wrote:

: I'm trying to find a definition of Linnean Name sufficently tight to form 
: part of a computer program specification.
:  Questions:
:  ----------
: 1) Can you understand this?
        no
: 2) Is it correct?
: 3) What other rank indicators are used?
: 4) Under what circumstances is a taxon put in parentheses?
: 5) Should a subgenus, or any other taxon between genus & species, be 
: written with a capital or lowercase initial?
: 6) Can any HighRankingTaxon start with a non-alpha character?
: 7) Do any taxa contain characters other than numbers, "-" & letters?
: 8) Have I used the word "taxon" correctly, to refer to the *name* of an 
: organism (or group), rather than the organism itself? If not, could you 
: suggest better terminology?

Latin binomials "Linnean names" always include the name of the authority
who created the name.  E.g. "Quercus dumosa Nutt."  Named by Nuttall.  You
have to have a way to include these (usually abbreviated) names.
David Wheat
The Bowditch Group
dwheat at mcimail.com