In the past I have shared a stein of beer with Dr. Guido Braem on several occasions, and on several different occasions closed a bar or two with Dr. Eric Christiansen, I have heard their versions of the need for some of these changes. Honestly, they are not trying to cause anyone trouble, they are just trying to get the facts straight. The problem is that the name used for a species is absolutely determined by the TYPE specimen, often that 100 year old dried out fragment of plant material glued to a cardboard and filed away in an obscure herbarium. Dr. Braem changed the name of what we used to call warscewiczianum because what was on the type specimen was not the plant that we in the hobby today had been refering to as warscewiczianum. In fact, the plant on the type sheet was what in the hobby we had been refering to as Phrag wallisii. And this sheet pre-dated the sheet naming wallisii. So the plant in the hobby today that was called warscewiczianum needed a name, and Mr Popow who is a long time friend and supporter of the orchid hobby, ans a decent guy too, was honored with the naming. And the plant we used to call wallisii had to revert to the earliest valid name given to it which was warscewiczianum. This will really play hell with the RHS hybrid registrations, but I suppose time will sort it out. Of course I am having problems remembering the changes, but eventually I will get used to it. - Leo
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