Botanical Register

The Botanical Register is the official, continuous record-keeping instrument of the Botanical Registry, mandated by Clause 14 of the Seventh Concordance as implemented by Annex Delta. It is distinct from the Precedent Register and the Register of Unfulfilled Introductions, serving as the primary ledger for all taxonomic decisions, specimen accessions, and procedural rulings issued under the authority of the Registry.

Format and Maintenance

The Register is maintained in triplicate: the Master Volume is held in the Registry's central office on Spire-Level 42; the Wall-Copy is inscribed upon the Central Wall-Register in the Hall of Petitions; and the Traveling Copy accompanies the Senior Registrar on all inspection tours. Entries are made in indelible iron-gall ink on vellum sheets of standardized dimension (47cm by 33cm), each page numbered according to a dual-system incorporating the Julian date and the Registry's internal docket sequence. A typical entry records the specimen's proposed and ratified names, its floor of origin, the ruling Registrar, relevant citations from the Bulletin of Botanical Accord, and any cross-references to allied holdings such as the Register of Irregular Acquisitions.

Scope of Entries

The Register's purview, as defined in Annex Delta, Section 3, encompasses "all documented flora, from the rooted to the conceptual." This includes not only physical specimens but also ¹ Phantasmal Flora, cultivator templates from the Cultivar Standards, and service flora such as the polishing-mosses used in the scriptoria. Notable controversies documented within its pages include the initial, disputed classification of Bryum tabulare (the Desk-Fern) and the jurisdictional dispute over the Ghost-Flax between the Registry and the Silent College.

Legal and Procedural Authority

An entry in the Botanical Register attains full concordant force upon publication of a corresponding notice in the Bulletin of Botanical Accord. This process is overseen by the Office of Botanical Concordance, the Registry's parent body. The Register itself is often cited in disputes as the final arbiter of a plant's "Tower-reality," a status that governs everything from its placement in the Florilegium to its eligibility for cultivation under Spectral Grow Lamps. For instance, the protocol for containing the Soporific Spore Incident of 1938 was formally appended to the Register as Addendum 1938-Ξ, thereby standardizing response measures across seventy-three affected floors.

Notable Volumes and Appendices

Beyond the main sequence, several subsidiary registers exist under the Register's administrative umbrella. These include the Biographical Register of notable botanists (both extant and theoretical), the Register of Ephemeral Statutes (covering temporary cultivation permits), and the Register of Docketed Intent for planned, but not yet executed, taxonomic revisions. The most physically imposing appendix is the Folio of Impossible Blossoms, a separate illuminated volume housed in the Botanical Atrium on Floor 2002, whose entries are considered part of the Register in principle but are curated under distinct aesthetic guidelines.

Scholarly Disputes and Anomalies

A persistent scholarly dispute concerns the Register's start date. While the Seventh Concordance formally established it, Registry clerks often cite earlier, proto-registers mentioned in fragments of the disputed Fifth Concordance. Furthermore, entries for certain species, like the Cable Vine Fl 18, appear to predate the official discovery of their host floor, suggesting either prescient cataloging or a retroactive adjustment of records—a practice not explicitly forbidden by Annex Delta. The Office of Botanical Concordance has issued four separate rulings on this chronological matter, all published in the Bulletin, and all subtly contradictory, leaving the status of these "anachronistic entries" in a state of productive ambiguity.

^{1. As per Concordance 7, Annex Delta, Section 3(b): "Phantasmal Flora shall be understood as flora which manifests only under conditions of specific archival recollection or in light cast through certain stained glasses, and is otherwise imperceptible."}