editorial

"Although Pimelea urvilleana was first clearly named as Pimelea urvilliana by Richard (Richard 1832) that species epithet has consistently been spelt "urvilleana" by New Zealand botanists at least since Hooker (1853). Burrows (2009) reverts back to "urvilliana". According to the international Botanical Code of Nomenclature (McNeill et al. 2006) "urvilleana" is the correct spelling: " If the personal name ends with a vowel, adjectival epithets are formed by adding -an- plus the nominative singular inflection appropriate to the gender of the generic name (...)". Thus in this case, Pimelea urville-ana for Jules Sebastien Cesar Dumont d'Urville (1790-1842) - as the feminine adjective for his surname in the genus Pimelea - clearly applies." (de Lange 2009)

de Lange, P.J. 2009: Is it Pimelea urvilleana or urvilliana?. New Zealand Botanical Society Newsletter 97: 17.