For the hybridizer naming and introducing new hybrids to cultivation, the Code is more helpful than any previous set of rules and the needs of hybridizers of various groups have been considered. Many examples illustrating application of each provision are given in the unabridged version.
The person naming plants will find much helpful guidance with regard to the selection of names which should be considered if international usage is to prevail. The Code is just that, a set of dicta provided for guidance by horticulturists throughout the world that there may prevail
a greater uniformity, accuracy, and fixity of names, a lessening of procedures that would lead to confusion and error if adequately supported or widely adopted, and a provision for change and revision.
One section of the code ("C") dealing with Registration might well come within the framework of interest and activity of the Northern Nut Growers Association. This section, which suffers materially by condensation in the abbreviated text that follows, occupies nearly a page in the unabridged edition. It envisages the establishment of an international registering body, with headquarters for different groups located in different countries, e.g., that for tulips in the Netherlands, for rhododendrons in Britain, for roses in the United States, etc. The task of compiling, maintaining, and publishing such a registrar (and rejecting names not in conformance with the Code) will fall in many cases on the special plant societies concerned. When societies for a given group of plants exist in 2 or more countries, they will be expected to collaborate. Insofar as I know the Northern Nut Growers Association has not set up any mechanism for the registration of names given to cultivars, hybrids, and clones of nuts. To do so would be to perform a very real service for your membership, for the industry in this country, and would place the Association in a key spot when the proposal for an international registry is activated. The agitation for this phase of international application of the Code is considerable and is more evident in Europe than here. If the Association takes an active stand in the matter and develops a center of registry of nut names for this continent, it may very well display a quality of initiative and service that will make it pre-eminent on the international level and will cause others to look to it for guidance, information, and leadership.