(1591) Proposal to conserve the name Mespilus cotoneaster (Rosaceae ) with a conserved type

In the protologue of Mespilus cotoneaster L., a low red-fruited shrub, Linnaeus indicated the distribution of the species as "in Europae frigidioris collibus apricis inque Pyreneis, Ararat" and references to, for example, Hortus cliffortianus and Bauhin's Pinax were given. However, at the same time it is obvious that Linnaeus knew this species mainly from Sweden. In Flora Suecica ed. 1: 147. 1745 he cited it (as "Mespilus foliis ovatis integerrimis") from "Uplandiae, Oelandiae, Smolandiae, Scaniae c Lid, Norsk Flora, ed. 1-5. 1944-1985; Hamet-Ahti & al., eds., Retkeilykasvio, ed. 1 & 2. 1984, 1986; Hansen, ed., Dansk feltflora. 1981; Mossberg & al., Den Nordiska Floran. 1992). The species is a relatively common constituent of the vegetation of dry, rocky places in southern and central Norway and Sweden, and it also occurs in southern Finland and on Bornholm in Denmark. The name has been used extensively outside the Nordic countries as well. So, for example, Browicz (in Fl. Europaea 2: 72.1968) regarded C. integerrimus as a species distributed over large parts of Europe. This situation changed when Hylmd (in Svensk Bot. Tidskr. 87: 305-330. 1993) circumscribed the common red-fruited Cotoneaster in Scandinavia in a narrower