How does it affect me?"

There are several answers to the first query, but the most significant
is that here for the first time we have a Code that represents the
thinking of horticulturists from all leading horticultural centers of
the world. I was a member of a committee of thirteen (representing 6
countries), that met for nine days in Stockholm in 1950 to prepare and
edit the first international draft of this Code. Those of each
nationality had met in their country previously, with their own leaders,
and had come to this round-table session with fixed ideas of what they
wanted. By mid-evening of the first session it became apparent that the
Swedes, the Dutch, the British, and the Americans had sent some of their
most persuasive, vocative, and determined countrymen to represent them.
The Swiss representative restrained himself admirably until after the
initial lines had been drawn. It looked then as if there might be
several codes, but before recessing several hours later some concessions
had been made, and discussion on the more volatile points had been
deferred. The differences of opinion were well founded and held with
good reason. Some reflected an unawareness of situations in an unrelated
horticultural field, e.g., a nurseryman did not know the problems
encountered by the Danes in developing so-called varieties of
vegetables, or by the American in producing hybrid-corn--each calling
for different provisions in the Code, nor could the rose specialist be
expected to comprehend the genetic situations encountered in many types
of hybridity. One botanist in the group had no appreciation of the
intricacies of problems and situations found when trying to name some
complex groups of cultigens. Add to these reasons the fact that most of
these men were representatives or spokesmen for larger groups or
national organizations "back home" and were not authorized to act
independently from earlier decisions by those groups, and one can only
marvel that at the end of the 9-day period we came up with a detailed
and workable draft accepted unanimously, and which was modified in no
major respect at the more recently International Horticultural Congress
in London.

The period between the Stockholm meeting and the London Congress was
utilized to distribute mimeographed copies of the Stockholm draft to
horticultural leaders in all countries, to provide opportunity for
suggesting changes and new provisions for the Code, and to hold on