The Brachycome saga, with a proposal for defining a correctable orthographical error in botanical nomenclature

In 1816, Cassini published a genus with the spelling Brachyscome, that he corrected to Brachycome in 1825. This correction was usually accepted until the mid-twentieth century. In 1950 a proposal of conservation was made to make sure nobody would revert to the original spelling. This proposal was rejected since at the time the correction of such an obvious orthographic error was considered superfluous. Nonetheless in 1965, Eichler considered, without giving any explanation, that the original spelling was to be maintained. This led to a second proposal to conserve Brachycome in 1989. This was ambiguously received by the Committee for Spermatophyta and the General Committee never reported on it. The history of the controversy on this orthographical problem was studied, as well as the reasons why the Code had been interpreted in diametrically opposite ways. It is shown that the perception by some authors of a contradiction between Art. 20 (arbitrary construction of generic names) and 60 (correction of orthographical errors) is due to a modification by the Vienna Congress of 1905 of the explicit rules adopted at Paris in 1867. To avoid further problems, suggestions are made to modify Art. 20.1 and 60.1 in the line of their original structure.