Abstract
Taxonomic botany is probably the last discipline that still publishes descriptions in Latin. This has a very long tradition, dating back to the first herbals from the 15th Century (Arber 1938), but times changed and English became a more widespread language in science. In botany a Latin diagnosis to validate the name only became a requirement in 1953. For decades it has been suggested that this requirement should be abolished, because most botanists are no longer fluent in Latin and many published Latin diagnoses were of poor quality or incomprehensible. However, it was not until this year that the International Botanical Congress in Melbourne, Australia changed the requirements for valid publication to allow diagnoses in English instead (Knapp et al. 2011). A diagnosis will still be needed next to the description of the new taxon, but because Latin is no longer required, we forecast an increase in new species descriptions in the New Year. Many taxonomists are not fluent in Latin and therefore researchers may have waited to submit descriptions of their new taxa until 2012. We welcome these new manuscripts and will do our best to accommodate them.