Our studies of the Neogene floras of western North America include revisions of a number of older publications, when it was fairly widespread practice to unite isolated organs of Tertiary plant megafossils under single specific epithets. However, our revisions indicate evidence of multiple species (or even genera) included within single fossil species. It was apparently thought that if "modern counterparts" make organs resembling various isolated fossil organs, then the fossils should be combined under a single taxonomic entity. Problems arise when careful examination suggests that some elements are not diagnostic at the specific level, and others (which are specifically diagnostic) suggest the presence of two or more fossil taxa. We are applying what we refer to as our "Honesty Policy". Simply stated it says: isolated organs that are diagnostic at the specific level should bear a distinctive specific epithet; while specifically-undiagnostic isolated organs should only bear epithets appropriate for their level of distinctiveness. While this may artificially inflate the number of recognized taxa in a given flora, we feel there is value in allowing each isolated plant organ to taxonomically "speak for itself", rather than be obscured by inaccurate inclusion under some other epithet. We note two exceptions to this policy: (1) monotypic or oligotypic taxa that give no reason throughout time to suspect multiple taxa and (2) well studied groups, where each independently scrutinized organ supports identification when compared to closely related modern and fossil taxa.

Key words: Neogene, Paleobotany, taxonomic principles