PLANT SCIENCE BULLETIN
A Publication of the Botanical Society of America, Inc.
SPRING 2000 VOLUME
46 NUMBER 1
CONTENTS
Plant Biology at the Beginning of the New Millennium
2
Growing an Undergraduate Botany and Plant Pathology
Program 4
News from the Society, the Sections, and the Committees
BSA
List of Officers
Electronic
American Journal of Botany 11
BOTANY 2000 Symposia 12
Expenditure
of 1999-2000 Interest from Endowments 13
Including
Discussion in the Annual Meeting Open Space 13
Announcements
In Memoriam: Joseph Andorfer
Ewan, 1909-1999 14
William Campbell Dickison, 1941-1999
14
Jane Gray, 1929-2000 15
G. Ledyand Stebbins, Jr., 1906-2000
16
Warren H. Wagner, Jr., 1911-2000 17
Personalia: Dr. Keith Ferguson 18
Dr. Shirley Tucker 18
Symposia, Conferences, Meetings
Therapeutic
Plants: Biological, Chemical, Cultural, and
Legal Aspects 19
Shrubland
Ecosystem Genetics and Biodiversity 19
"Legumes Downunder" 20
Other News: USDA-ARS 21
Private
Garden Foundation Funds Major Plant Project 21
Images
of Vascular Plant Type Specimens, N.Y.B.G 21
Positions Available: Collections
Manager 22
k-8 Teacher
Training 22
Graduate
Assistant (MS), Plant Anatomy 22
Books Reviews 23
Books Received 30
BSA Logo Items Available
from the Business Office 32
ISSN 0032-0919

BOTANICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA |
Editor: Marshall D. Sundberg
Division of Biological Sciences
Emporia State University
1200 Commercial Street, Emporia, KS 66801-5707
Telephone: 316-341-5605 Fax: 316-341-5607
Email: sundberm@emporia.edu
We had to make one significant change on the cover of the Plant Science
Bulletin this year, the number 2000, so we thought a whole new face
would be appropriate. Although the cover looks different, the format carries
on the tradition of my predecessors and depends almost entirely on your
input as member/contributors. You are the reason this newsletter has been
so successful! As I begin my tenure as editor, I want to acknowledge two
people whose help has been essential. Meredith Lane, editor from 1991 until
1994, established the current PSB format and instituted the Book
Reviews as a regular section. Joe Leverich, my predecessor, was particularly
helpful in smoothing the current transition. He's left me some pretty big
shoes to fill!
In addition to regular contributions from members, sections and the
society, I will be soliciting articles that I think may be of interest
to the membership as a whole. With that in mind, let me provide a brief
introduction.
Plant Biology at the Beginning of the New Millennium
In 1995 several interesting and useful documents were published by the
Society. One, Botany for the Next Millennium, examined the status
of the plant sciences and recommended goals and actions for the membership
in order to maintain botany as a vital field of natural science. In that
document the following statement was made: " In many cases, respondents
described an erosion of plant biology research and teaching as some institutions
have reorganized their botany departments." This, unfortunately, is not
a new concern. Over the past three decades, several articles have appeared
in these pages, and elsewhere, expressing the concern that the reorganization
and loss of botany departments was weakening the discipline and ultimately
contributing to a decrease in public understanding of the importance of
plants. One of these (Eshbaugh, 1983, "Plant Biology in the Future," PSB
29: ) presented a table of data gathered from the 1968 and 1983 printings
of a Guide to Graduate Study in Botany. The 8th edition
of this document was a second society special publication in 1995. Following
is an expanded version of Eshbaugh's table including the more recent data.
Of course some "apples and oranges" comparisons are made here. For instance,
UC Davis now records all of the plant sciences as opposed to just one department
and I'm reasonably confident that the number of Ph.D.'s shown for Illinois
is a typo. Nevertheless, this table seems to present both good news and
bad. The good news is that in some places plant science is holding it's
own - - the bad news is that even "holding its own" is not keeping up with
gains in other places. And the trend is continuing. My former department
at LSU, Botany (Plant Biology), is now part of a biology department. This
is also true for several other departments listed as Botany in the `95
table. What is not evident from the table is some of the best news. Our
graduate
programs depend on interest generated at the undergraduate level, and
there are some good examples of where this interest is thriving and growing.
In the following article, Frank Ewers describes the successful program
he directs at Michigan State University. There are a number of components
that contribute to this success, many of which can be adapted to our own
institutions from 2-yr colleges through Research I programs. Lets give
it a try! Ed.
Plant Science Bulletin
ISSN 0032-0919
Published quarterly by Botanical Society of America, Inc., 1735 Neil
Ave., Columbus, OH 43210
The yearly subscription rate of $15 is included in the membership dues
of the Botanical Society of America, Inc. Periodical postage paid at Columbus,
OH and additional mailing office.
Address Editorial Matters (only) to:
Marsh Sundberg, Editor
Div. Biol. Sci., Emporia State Univ.
1200 Commercial St.
Emporia, KS 66801-5057
Phone 316-341-5605
email: sundberm@emporia.edu
POSTMASTER: Send address changes to:
Kim Hiser, Business Manager
Botanical Society of America
1735 Neil Ave.
Columbus OH 43210-1293
Phone/Fax: 614/292-3519
email: hiser.3@osu.edu
TABLE 1. Departments of Botany as Reported in a Guide to Graduate Study
in Botany 1968,1983,1998.
Faculty per Botany Department Grad Students per Botany Dept Botany Ph.D.'s
in past 5 Years
1968 1983 1995 1968 1983 1995
1968 1983 1995
Arizona State Univ.
9 11 32
38 27 64
5 13 11
U. of Arkansas (biol) 10
9 (7)
14 19 (6)
7 5 (2)
Brigham Young Univ. 13
d 34
1
U. of Calif. (Berkeley) 15
15 (21+8) 56 38 (60+15)
30 43 (19+16)
U. of Calif. (Davis)
21 30 107
53 43 102
42 46 69
U. of Calif. (Los Angeles)14 Biol. (14)
53 Biol. 65
56 Biol 116
U. of Chicago
11 Biol. (2+6) 23
Biol .
30 Biol.
Claremont Grad. School 6
12 8
10
13 9
Cornell Univ.
24 45
34 45
25+ 53
Duke Univ.
16 18 25
54 51 50
36 35 33
U. of Florida
17 16 18
28 42 35
20 9 15
U. of Georgia
18 Biol. 24
33 Biol. 51
16 Biol. 36
U. of Hawaii
14 14
34 32
10 20
U. of Illinois
19 25 15
61 43 31
34 29 335
Indiana Univ.(biol)
14 Biol. (18)
46 Biol. ___
29 Biol. ___
U. of Iowa (biol)
10 20 (15)
33 20 ___
19 12 ___
U. of Kansas
12 13 14
27 21 15
26 10 10
U. of Kentucky
6
10 --
3 --
U. of Maryland
18 18 26
57 44 52
17 27 24
U. of Massachusetts
21 18 25
43 25 45
5 20 16
Miami Univ.
11 14 19
40 24 36
(1967) 20 23
U. of Michigan
25 24
56 28
35
U. of Minnesota
14 14 23
51 29 34
12 17 53
Mississippi State Univ. 6
Biol. -- 15
Biol. ___
(1965) Biol. __
U. of Missouri (biol)
11 9
32
10
U. of Montana (biol)
10 9 8
20 22
1(1964) 5 3
U. of Nebraska (biol) 10
Life Sci. 23 13 Life Sci.
7 Life Sci.
U. of New Hampshire 10
11 22
24 8 30
11 5 7
North Carolina State Univ. 14 27
18 42
46 35
12 24 13
Univ. of North Carolina (biol)19 (6) Biol (13)
47 Biol.
12 Biol.
Ohio State Univ.
24 20 16
49 26 40
38 14 19
U. of Rhode Island
9 14 7
26 23 11
6 12 8
Rutgers
10 Biol. 34
43 Biol. 25
26 Biol. 20
Southern Illinois Univ.
14 16 21
33 51 43
7 16 17
U. of Tennessee
17 26 18
49 40 31
13 18 14
U. of Texas
20 27 20
70 48 68
55 37 31
Utah State Univ.(biol)
11 Biol. 10
30 Biol .
7 Biol .
U. of Utah(biol)
8 12
40
5
U. of Vermont
9 10 11
5 16 20
3 2 5
Washington State Univ.
12 13 12
33 25 23
15 20 19
Washington Univ.
15
38
15
U. of Washington
11 18 39
37 42 40
18 30 26
U. of Wisconsin(Mad.)
18 20 16
63(5) 53 30
27 32
U. of Wisconsin(Mil.)(biol)
13
8 30
(1976)c
Total
609 432 831 1625
826 1107
758 500 1042
Average
13.8 17.3 20.8 36.9 33.0
35.7
18.9 20.0 35.9
Plant Science Bulletin
Editorial Committee for Volume 46
Vicki A. Funk (2001)
Department of Botany
Smithsonian Institution
Washington, D.C. 20560
mnhbo003@sivm.si.edu
Ann E. Antlfinger (2002)
Biology Department
Univ. of Nebraska - Omaha
Omaha NE 681823
antlfinger@unomaha.edu
P. Mick Richardson (2000)
Missouri Botanical Garden
P.O. Box 299
St. Louis, MO 63166
mick.richardson@mobot.org
Norman C. Ellstrand (2003)
Department of Botany and Plant Science
University of California
Riverside CA 92521-0124
ellstrand@ucracl.ucr.edu
James E. Mickle (2004)
Department of Botany
North Carolina State University
Raleigh, NC 27695-7612
james_mickle@ncsu.edu
Growing an Undergraduate
Botany and Plant Pathology Program
Michigan State is a large research university with a strong graduate
program in Botany and Plant Pathology, but for many years in the 1980's
we had less than 10 undergraduate majors in our department. To revitalize
an undergraduate program in plant biology requires effective leadership.
When we hired a new Department Chair, plant pathologist Gustaaf de Zoeten,
in 1990, he argued that a strong, visible undergraduate program was essential
to the long-term survival of botany and plant pathology at Michigan State.
He set a goal of having 100 undergraduate majors in our department. We
currently have over 80 undergraduate majors and we expect to reach the
goal of 100 within the next few years. We reformed our undergraduate program
starting in the early 1990's, with changes in curriculum, advising policies
and the insertion of extracurricular activities. In fact, we made so many
changes that it is difficult to tell which ones were most important to
the gradual but steady revitalization of our program.
First we surveyed our alumni, posing the question, "How well did our
program prepare you for employment or graduate school?" Then, as now, about
one half of our graduates went on to graduate school, but the other half
sought employment directly with their bachelor degree. Students who had
gone on directly to graduate school felt our program had served them well,
but those who sought employment with a B.S. from our department felt ill
prepared. For various reasons they found it difficult to get their "foot
in the door" for suitable entry level employment. The other issue that
needed addressing was that prospective majors were not aware of the wide
range of opportunities that were available within the plant sciences, and
they were not sure how we differed from our sister departments at Michigan
State such as Horticulture, Forestry, and Crop and Soil Science. To remedy
these problems, we installed a number of curriculum changes.
We began to offer tracks or "concentrations" within our major in 1991.
Currently we offer a B.S. in Botany and Plant Pathology with concentrations
in General Botany, Anatomy and Cell Biology, Botanical Gardens and Conservatories,
Ecology, Systematics and Evolution, Pathology and Mycology, Physiology
and Molecular Biology, and Plant Protection. The various tracks differ
only slightly from one another, but they highlight different career tracks
that a student could follow, plus they act as a "built in" advisor for
students with particular career interests. We added a B.S. program in Environmental
Biology/Botany, in 1997, which has been growing slowly but steadily.
We also initiated requirements for all our majors to do at least one
semester of Undergraduate Research (BOT 498), followed by a Senior Seminar
course (BOT 499). Almost every professor in our department has sponsored
students in Undergraduate Research over the last several years. Undergraduate
Research not only gives the student hands-on experience, it also provides
a link to a particular laboratory. In some cases the student is directly
guided by the professor, in other cases the undergraduate will work more
closely with a graduate student, a post-doc, or a technician in a research
laboratory. Some projects have provided opportunities for field research
at Kellogg Biological Station, along Lake Michigan sand dunes or remote
sites in exotic locations such as Alaska, Puerto Rico, Costa Rica and Nepal.
Financial support for undergraduate research has come from various sources
including NSF-REU (Research Experience for Undergraduates) awards, competitive
college level research scholarships for undergraduates, and college and
university level Study Abroad scholarships. In 1998 the University built
for us a new teaching greenhouse, in part, to support Undergraduate Research
Projects. As a result of Undergraduate Research each student gains a better
understanding of the scientific process, gains practical skills, and usually
can obtain a good or excellent letter of reference. In the Senior Seminar
course the student develops their own CV and web page, and they polish
their skills in public speaking, computer science, and scientific writing.
The course culminates with the students each giving a public seminar on
their research project.
We also made a number of changes to improve the "culture" of the undergraduate
experience in our department. Michigan State is an extremely large university
where the undergraduate student often feels ignored or isolated. In addition
to requiring Undergraduate Research, we instituted several other programs
or policies to enrich the undergraduate experience, to eliminate anonymity,
and to link undergraduate with the mainstream of our department.
Three professors in the department serve as academic advisors, and there
is an undergraduate secretary to answer the student's questions, help them
with enrolment problems, and so forth. Each semester we mail to each of
our majors an individualized letter commenting on their academic progress
within the program, reminding them who is their advisor, and providing
other essential information. Our goal, not always met to date, is for a
particular student to have the same academic advisor throughout their undergraduate
career in our department, maximizing continuity from year to year. We have
a bulletin board within the department with identification photos of all
our undergraduate majors, notices for internships and jobs, and undergraduate
club news. The photo board helps our faculty and staff to learn who are
our undergraduate majors, and it also helps the students to identify each
other. Tracking down our majors to take their photo can be a challenge,
but it is worth it. All of our majors are also put on an email list-server
so that we can send them messages such as the weekly departmental "News-O-Gram"
which includes notices of jobs and internships.
At Michigan State most undergraduate students work part-time and summer
jobs as they go to school. We have
made special efforts to place our undergraduate majors with part-time
and/or summer employment opportunities within the department and we have
had virtually 100% placement of interested students. This helps in their
resume development and links them more strongly to the department.
Once we had a "critical mass" of majors, in 1995, we initiated a student
lead, faculty advised Undergraduate Botany and Plant Pathology Club. The
students set the club agenda each year, which usually includes field trips,
career development and outreach activities. The club has its own web site
to help promote and organize their activities. Several members of the club
also serve as "peer advisors", to provide students with insights regarding
courses at Michigan State and to supplement the official advice that students
get from their academic advisor. About half of our majors participate in
club activities from time to time. We found that offering free pizza and
soft drinks helps improve the turnout for organizational meetings!
Each fall we have an evening roundtable panel discussion on "Graduate
Schools in the Plant Sciences", to inform students of everything they ought
to know about applying for graduate schools. This year for the first time
we will also have a roundtable panel discussion on "Non-Academic Careers
in the Plant Sciences." Several of our alumni have volunteered to serve
as panel members, to guide and inspire the undergraduates.
We pay special attention to our Seniors. Each year in our main hallway
we have a bulletin board showing profiles of all our graduating Seniors,
and the profiles are organized into a yearbook which is given to each graduate
in the spring, at a departmental graduation reception. We also track student
careers after graduation. Alumni success stories boost the moral of our
present majors and they help with recruiting new students. Our alumni also
notify us of job opportunities for graduating seniors.
Compared to departments such as Zoology and Horticulture at Michigan
State, we still have a small undergraduate program. As such, we are able
to provide our majors with considerable individual attention. That may
be the key ingredient for growing an undergraduate program in plant biology
at a large research university. Further information on our program is available
from our Website: http//pilot.msu.edu/unit/botany/
By way of a postscript, the winds of administrative restructuring are
currently blowing through our department. Of course, this is not the first
time. Our first graduating class, in "Botany and Vegetable Physiology"
was in 1861, back when Michigan State was called the "Michigan Agricultural
College". We have been the "Department of Botany and Plant Pathology" since
1932. A likely outcome of ongoing administrative shifts is that the plant
pathologists in our department will form a separate department in our College
of Agriculture and Natural Resources, while Botany, perhaps to be renamed
"Plant Biology", will remain in the College of Natural Science. Although
in the last four years, only 7% of our undergraduate majors have actually
specialized in the Plant Pathology and Mycology track, a high percentage
of our undergraduate majors have worked part-time and/or summer jobs in
plant pathology labs within the department. Partly as a result of those
experiences, 43% of the Senior Seminar research talks have been in the
area of plant pathology, and many of our botany majors have gone on to
graduate programs in that field. Our majors get the complete view from
theoretical to applied plant science. Given this mostly happy marriage,
I dearly hope that our Botany and Plant Pathology undergraduate program
will remain intact, in both name and spirit, lest we loose our critical
mass.
Frank Ewers, Department of Botany
and Plant Pathology, Michigan State University
The number of undergraduate majors in Botany and Plant Pathology
at Michigan State University increased steadily throughout the 1990's
News from the Society, the Sections and the
Committees
BSA List of Officers
for 1999 2000
(* = Members of the Council) Effective 8/5/99
PRESIDENT
*Douglas E. Soltis (1999-2000)
Department of Botany
Washington State University
P.O. Box 644238
Pullman, WA 99164
(509) 3355302 FAX (509) 3353517
EMail: dsoltis@mail.wsu.edu
PRESIDENTELECT
*Patricia G. Gensel (19992000)
Department of Biology CB#3280
University of North Carolina
Chapel Hill, NC 275993280
Phone: (919) 9626937
FAX: (919) 9621625
Email: pgensel@bio.unc.edu
SECRETARY
*Pamela Soltis (19972000)
Department of Botany
Washington State University
P.O. Box 644238
Pullman, WA 99164
(509) 3353533 FAX (509) 3353517
EMail: psoltis@wsu.edu
TREASURER
*Edward L. Schneider (19982001)
Santa Barbara Botanic Garden
1212 Mission Canyon Rd
Santa Barbara, CA 93105
(805) 6824726 X123 FAX: (805) 5630352
EMail: eschneider@sbbg.org
PROGRAM DIRECTOR
*Jeffrey M. Osborn (19992002)
Division of Science
Truman State University
Kirksville, MO 63501
(660) 7854017 FAX (660) 7854045
EMail: josborn@truman.edu
COUNCIL REPRESENTATIVE
*Scott Russell (19992001)
Department of Botany and Microbiology
University of Oklahoma
Norman, OK 730190245
(405) 3256234 FAX (405) 3257619
EMail:srussell@ou.edu
EDITOR, American Journal of Botany
Karl J. Niklas (2004)
214 Plant Science Bldg.
Cornell University
Ithaca, NY 148535908
(607) 2558727 FAX (607) 2555407
EMail: kjn2@cornell.edu
EDITOR, Plant Science Bulletin
Marshall D. Sundberg
Division of Biological Sciences
Emporia State University
1200 Commercial St.
Emporia, KS 66801-5087
(316)341-5605 FAX (316) 341-5607
EMail: sundberm@emporia.edu
BUSINESS MANAGER
*Kim Hiser
Botanical Society of America
1735 Neil Avenue
Columbus, OH 432101293
(614) 2923519 (Phone and FAX)
hiser.3@osu.edu
PASTPRESIDENT, 1999
*Carol C. Baskin
School of Biological Sciences
University of Kentucky
Lexington, KY 405060225
(606) 2578770 FAX (606) 2571717
EMail: jmbask0@ukcc.uky.edu
PASTPRESIDENT, 1998
Nancy Dengler
Department of Botany
University of Toronto
Toronto, ON Canada M5S 3B2
(416) 9783536 FAX (416) 9785878
EMail: dengler@botany.utoronto.ca
PAST PRESIDENT, 1997
Daniel J. Crawford
Department of Plant Biology
Ohio State University
1735 Neil Ave.
Columbus, OH 432101293
(614) 2922725 FAX (614) 2926345
EMail:crawford.13@osu.edu
BSA Sectional Officers for 1999 2000
(* = BSA Council Members) Revised 10/22/99
** indicates expired term.
BRYOLOGICAL AND LICHENOLOGICAL SECTION
Chair (2001):
* Paula DePriest
Department of Botany, NHB 166
National Museum of Natural History Smithsonian Institution
Washington, DC 20560
(202) 3572545, FAX (202) 7862563
EMail: depriest@onyx.si.edu
DEVELOPMENTAL AND STRUCTURAL SECTION
Chair (2001):
*Jean Gerrath
Department of Biology
University of Northern Iowa
Cedar Falls, IA 506140421
Phone: (319) 2737152
FAX: (319) 2737125
EMail: gerrath@uni.edu
Program Director (2000):
Elizabeth M. Harris
Ohio State University Herbarium
Museum of Biological Diversity
1315 Kinnear Road
Columbus, OH 43212
(614) 2923296, FAX (614) 2923009
Email: harris.690@osu.edu
Treasurer (2000):
Cynthia Jones
Department of Ecol. and Evol. Biol.
University of Connecticut
Storrs, CT 06269
(203) 4864150, FAX (203) 4866364
EMail: cjones@unconnvm.ucon.edu
ECOLOGY SECTION
Chair (2001):
*Maxine A. Watson
Department of Biology
Indiana University
Bloomington, IN 474056801
(812) 8555591 FAX: (812) 8556705
Email: mwatson@bio.indiana.edu
ViceChair (2001):
Elizabeth P. Lacey
Department of Biology
University of North Carolina
Greensboro, NC 27420
(336) 3345391 X53 FAX: 336/3345839
Email: laceye@goodall.uncg.edu
Secretary (2001):
Massimo Pigliucci
Department of Botany
University of Tennessee
Knoxville, TN 379961100
(423) 9746221 FAX: (423) 9740978
Email: pigliucci@utk.edu
ECONOMIC BOTANY SECTION
Chair (2002):
Felix G. Coe
Department of Biology
Tennessee Technological University
Box 5063
Cookeville, TN 38505
(931) 3726257, FAX: (931) 3726257
EMail fcoe@tntech.edu
SecretaryTreasurer (2000):
*Daniel K. Harder
Missouri Botanical Garden
P.O. Box 299
St. Louis, MO 631660299
(314) 5775169, FAX (314) 5775169
EMail: harder@mobot.org
GENETICS SECTION
Chair (2001):
*Jeri Higginbotham
Division of Natural Sciences
Transylvania University
Lexington, KY 405081797
(606) 2338241 FAX (606) 2338171
Email: jhigginbotham@mail.transy.edu
Vice Chair (2001):
[vacant]
SecretaryTreasurer (2001):
[vacant]
Editor, Newsletter (1999):
Vance Baird
Horticultural Department
Plant and Animal Science Building
Clemson University
Clemson, SC 296340375
(803) 6564953, FAX (803) 6564960
vance baird@quickmail.clemson.edu
HISTORICAL SECTION
Chair (2001):
Vassiliki Betty Smocovitis
Department of History
4131 Turlington Hall
University of Florida
Gainesville, FL 326117320
(352) 3920271 FAX 3926927
EMail: bsmocovi@history.ufl.edu
ViceChair (2001)
Peter F. Stevens
Harvard University Herbaria
22 Divinity Ave.
Cambridge, MA 02138
(617) 4952348 FAX 4959484
EMail: pstevens@oeb.harvard.edu
SecretaryTreasurer (2001)
*Laurence J. Dorr
Department of Botany, MRC166
National Museum of Natural History
Smithsonian Institution
Washington, DC 205600166
(202) 6339106 or 3572534 FAX 7862563
EMAIL: dorrl@nmnh.si.edu
MYCOLOGICAL SECTION
Chair (2001):
*David S. Hibbett
Department of Biology
Clark University
950 Main Street
Worcester, MA 016101477
Fax: 5087938861
EMail: dhibbett@oeb.harvard.edu
PALEOBOTANICAL SECTION
Chair (2002):
James F. Basinger
Department of Geological Sciences
University of Saskatchewan
Saskatoon, Saskatchewan S7N 0W0 CANADA
(306) 9665687 FAX: (306) 9668593
EMail: jim.basinger@sask.usask.ca
SecretaryTreasurer (2001):
*Steven R. Manchester
Florida Museum of Natural History
Department of Natural Sciences
University of Florida
Gainesville, FL 326112035
Tele: (352) 3926564 Fax: (352) 8460287
Email: steven@flmnh.ufl.edu
Editor, Bibliography of American Paleobotany (2001):
Patrick S. Herendeen
Department of Biological Sciences
George Washington University
Lisner Hall 340
2023 G Street NW
Washington, DC 20052
(202) 9945828 FAX (202) 9946100
Email: herenden@gwis2.circ.gwu.edu
PHYCOLOGICAL SECTION
Chair (2001):
*Louise A. Lewis
Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology
University of Conneticut
75 North Eagleville Road, U43
Storrs, CT 062693042
(860) 4866723 FAX (860) 4866364
EMail: llewis@uconnvm.uconn.edu
Secretary (1999):
Jeffrey R. Johansen
Department of Biology
John Carroll University
University Heights, OH 44118
(216) 3974487, FAX: (216) 3974482
Email: johansen@jcu.edu
PHYSIOLOGICAL SECTION
Chair (2001):
*Peter F. Straub
Natural Science and Mathematics Division
Richard Stockton College
Pomona, N.J. 08240
(609) 6524556 FAX (609) 7485515
EMail: pete.straub@stockton.edu
Program Director (2001):
Denise Seliskar
Halophyte Biotechnology Center
700 Pilottown Rd.
University of Delaware
Lewes, DE 19958
(302) 6454366 FAX (302) 6454028
EMail: seliskar@udel.edu
PHYTOCHEMICAL SECTION
Chair (2001):
*James W. Wallace
Department of Biology
Western Carolina University
Cullowhee, NC 38723
(704) 2277244 FAX (704) 2277647
EMail: wallacej@wcu.edu
Secretary and Program Organizer (2001):
Emanuel L. Johnson
USDA ARS WSL
Building 001, Room 329 BARCW
10300 Baltimore Ave.
Beltsville, MD 207052350
(301) 5045323 FAX (301) 5046491
Email eljohnsn@asrr.arsusda.gov.
TreasurerEditor (1997)**:
W. Dennis Clark
Department of Botany
Arizona State University
Tempe, AZ 85287
(602) 9654482 FAX (602) 9656899
EMail: atwdc@asuvm.inre.asu.edu
PTERIDOLOGICAL SECTION
Chair (2000):
W. Carl Taylor
Milwaukee Public Museum
800 West Wells Street
Milwaukee, WI 53233
(414) 2782760 FAX 2231396
Email: ct@mpm1.mpm.edu
SecretaryTreasurer (2001):
*Thomas A. Ranker
Department of EPO Biology
Campus Box 334
University of Colorado
Boulder, CO 80309
(303) 4925074 FAX: (303) 4928699
Email: thomas.ranker@colorado.edu
SYSTEMATICS SECTION
Chair (2001):
*J. Mark Porter
Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden
1500 North College Avenue
Claremont, CA 91711
(909) 6258767 ext. 229 FAX (909) 6267670
EMail: j.mark.porter@cgu.edu
SecretaryTreasurer (1999):
Sterling C. Keeley
Department of Botany
University of Hawaii
3190 Maile Way
Honolulu, HI 96822
(808) 9563930 FAX (808) 9563923
EMail sterling@hawaii.edu
TEACHING SECTION
Chair (2000):
*Donald P. Buckley
Office of Instructional Technology
School of Health Sciences
Quinnipiac College
275 Mt. Carmel Ave.
Hamden, CT 065181940
(203) 2873467 FAX: (203) 2818706
EMail: Don.Buckley@quinnipiac.edu
Vice Chair (2000):
Henri Maurice
Barat CollegeBox 618
700 E Westleigh Rd
Lake Forest, IL 60045
(847) 6046365 FAX (847) 6155000
EMail: botprof@aol.com
Secretary/Treasurer (1999):
Donald S. Galitz
Department of Botany/Biology
Stevens Hall, P.O. Box 5517
North Dakota State University
Fargo, ND 58103
(701) 2377226 FAX (701) 2377149
Email: galitz@badlands.nodak.edu
Program Coordinator (1999)
Rob Reinsvold
Department of Biological Sciences
501 20th Street
University of Northern Colorado
Greeley, CO 80639
(970) 3512716 FAX (970) 3512335
EMail: rjreins@bentley.unco.edu
TROPICAL BIOLOGY SECTION
Chair (2001):
*Susanne Renner
Department of Biology
8001 Natural Bridge Rd.
University of MissouriSt. Louis
St. Louis, MO 631214499
FAX (314) 5166233
Email: biosrenn@admiral.umsl.edu
Program Chair and SecretaryTreasurer (2001):
Andrew Douglas
Biology Department
University of Mississippi
Email: adouglas@olemiss.edu
MIDCONTINENT SECTION
Chair (2002):
*Robert S. Wallace
Department of Botany
Bessey Hall
Iowa State University
Ames, IA 500111020
(515) 2940367 FAX (515) 2941337
EMail: rwallace@iastate.edu
Vice Chair (2002):
Craig C. Freeman
Kansas Biological Survey
2041 Constant Avenue
Lawrence, KS 66047
(785) 8643453 FAX: (785) 8645093
EMail: cfreeman@ukans.edu
Secretary/Treasurer (2001):
Kenneth J. Freiley
Biology Department
University of Central Arkansas
Conway, AR 72035
(501) 4505926 FAX (501) 4505914
EMail: kennethf@cc1.vca.edu
Vice Secretary/Treasurer (2001):
Allan D. Nelson
Department of Biology
Science Building, Rm 226
Box T0100
Tarleton State University
Stephenville, TX 76402
(254) 9689159 FAX (254) 9689157
EMail: nelson@tarleton.edu
NORTHEASTERN SECTION
Chair (1996):
*Karl Anderson
Rancocas Nature Center
794 Rancocas Road
Mount Holly, NJ 08060
(609) 2612495
PACIFIC SECTION
Chair (1999):
Fred Rickson
Department of Botany
Oregon State University
Corvallis, OR 973312902
(503) 7375272 FAX (503) 7373573
EMail: ricksonf@bcc.orst.edu
SecretaryTreasurer (1999):
*David E. Bilderback
College of Arts and Sciences LA101
University of Montana
Missoula, MT 598121214
(406) 2432632 FAX (406) 2434076
EMail: bilderba@selway.umt.edu
SOUTHEASTERN SECTION
Chair (2000):
*Kathleen L. Hornberger
Department of Biology
Science Division
Widner University
Chester, PA 19013
EMail: hornberger@pop1.science.widener.edu
Activities Committee Chair (2002):
Mary A. McKenna
Department of Biology
St. Andrews College
Laurinburg, NC 28352
(919) 2763652 X358 FAX (919) 2775020
EMail:
SecretaryTreasurer (2002):
Larry Davenport
Department of Biology
Samford University
Birmingham, AL 35229
(205) 8702584 FAX (205) 8702479
EMail: ljdavenp@samford.edu
BSA Committees for 1999 2000
Standing Committees:
ANNUAL MEETING PROGRAM COMMITTEE
Jeffrey M. Osborn (2002) (Chair)
Program Organizer of each Section
Chair, Local Organizing Committee
Representatives of Other Societies meeting with BSA
ANNUAL MEETING COORDINATING COMMITTEE (3 members; 3 year terms) (new
committee: 1999)
Wayne Elisens (2002), Chair
Peter Hoch (2002)
Barbara Schaal (2002)
Chris Haufler (2002)
ARCHIVES AND HISTORY COMMITTEE (2 members; 5 year terms)
Ronald Stuckey (2003) (Chair)
Jean Gerrath (2000) (Chair)
Phil Gibson (2001)
Jeff Carmichael (2002)
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
Douglas Soltis (2001), President
Carol Baskin (2000), Past President
Patricia Gensel (2002), President Elect
Jeffrey Osborn (2002), Program Director
Scott Russell (2001), Council Representative
Pamela Soltis (2000), Secretary
Edward L. Schneider (2001), Treasurer
FINANCIAL ADVISORY COMMITTEE (3 members; 3 year terms)
Harry T. Horner (2001), (Chair) Representing Doug Soltis, President,
ex officio
Joseph Armstrong (2000)
Judy Jernstedt (2001)
Charles Daghlian (2001)
Edward Schneider (2001), Treasurer, ex officio
Edith Taylor (2002)
KARLING AWARD COMMITTEE (6 members; 3 year terms)
George Yatskievych (2000) (Chair)
Cynthia Jones (2000)
Kathleen Kron (2001)
Diane Greene (2001)
Carolyn Howes Keiffer (2001)
Jeffrey Osborn (2000)
MEMBERSHIP AND APPRAISAL COMMITTEE (5 members; 5 year terms)
Leo Bruederle (2000) (Chair)
David Giannasi (2001)
Kathleen Shea (2002)
Diane Marshall (2002)
Donald Hauber (2003)
Lyn Loveless (2004)
MERIT AWARDS COMMITTEE (3 members; 3 year terms)
John Doebley (2000) (Chair)
Douglas Soltis (2000), President, ex officio
Linda Graham (2001)
Maxine Watson (2002)
MOSELEY AWARD COMMITTEE (3 members; 3 year terms)
Larry Hufford (2000) (Chair)
Michael Frohlich (2001)
Bill Stein (2002)
PELTON AWARD COMMITTEE (3 members; 3 year terms)
Fred Sack (2000), Chair
Michael Christianson (2001)
Scott Russell (2002)
Darleen DeMason (2000), Immediate Past Secretary, ex officio
Lee Kass (2004)
COMMITTEE ON COMMITTEES (6 appointed members; 3 year terms)
Patricia Gensel (2000), President Elect, Chair, ex officio
Cynthia Jones (2000)
Bijan Dehgan (2000)
Gar Rothwell (2001)
Richard McCourt (2001)
Linda Graham (2002)
Tom Ranker (2002)
Pamela Soltis (2000), Secretary, ex officio
CONSERVATION COMMITTEE (6 members; 3 year terms)
William Hahn (2001) (Chair)
Larry Zettler (2000)
Kaius Helenurm (2000)
Diane Elam (2001)
Dan Watts (2002)
Pati Vit (2002)
CORRESPONDING MEMBERS COMMITTEE (Past Presidents)
Carol C. Baskin (2002), ex officio
Nancy Dengler (2001), ex officio
Daniel Crawford (2000), ex officio
DARBAKER PRIZE COMMITTEE (3 members; 3 year terms)
Annette Coleman (2000) (Chair)
David Garbary (2001)
Louise Lewis (2002)
EDUCATION COMMITTEE (6 members; 3 year terms)
David W. Kramer (2001) (Chair)
Douglas Soltis (2000), President, ex officio
Donald S. Galitz, (1999), Secretary of the Teaching Section, ex officio
Pamela Soltis (2000), Secretary, ex officio
Marshall Sundberg (2004), Editor of the Plant Science Bulletin, ex
officio
Chester Wilson (2000)
J.S. Shipman (2000)
Steve Rice (2001)
David Leutz (2002)
Rob Reinsvold (2002)
ELECTION COMMITTEE (3 members; 3 year terms)
Carol C. Baskin (2000), Past President, ex officio (Chair)
Pamela Soltis (2000), Secretary, ex officio
Darlene Southworth (2000)
John LaClaire (2000)
Gerald Gastony (2002)
ESAU AWARD COMMITTEE (3 members; 3 year terms)
Edward Schneider (2001), Treasurer, ex officio
Kim Hiser, Business Manager, ex officio
PUBLICATIONS COMMITTEE (5 members; 3 year terms) (new committee: 1999)
Judy Jernstedt (2002), Chair
Pam Diggle (2002)
Darleen Demason (2002)
Jonathan Wendel (2002)
Joe Leverich (2002)
Karl Niklas (2004), Editor, AJB ex officio
Marshall Sundberg (2004), Editor, PSB ex officio
Scott Russell, Webmaster, ex officio
Kimberly Hiser, Business Manager, ex officio
WEBPAGE COMMITTEE (5 members; 3 year terms) (new committee: 1998)
Scott Russell, Webmaster & Chair
Wayne Elisens (2000)
Chuck Daghlian (2001)
J. S. Shipman (2001)
Ross Koning (2002)
Steven J. Wolf (2002)
David W. Kramer (2001), Education Committee Chair, ex officio
Marshall Sundberg (2004), Editor, PSB ex officio
Karl Niklas (2004), Editor, AJB ex officio
Pamela Soltis (2000), Secretary, ex officio
Kimberly Hiser, Business Manager, ex officio
Ad Hoc Committees:
DEVELOPMENT AD HOC COMMITTEE
Judy Jernstedt, Chair
Joe Armstrong
Dan Crawfrod
John Herr
Kim Hiser
Ed Schneider
ENDOWMENT PRIORITIZATION AD HOC COMMITTEE
Nancy Dengler, Chair
David Baum
Chris Haufler
Patricia Holmgren
Ruth Stockey
PUBLICATIONS OF THE SOCIETY
American Journal of Botany
Karl Niklas, EditorinChief (2004)
Plant Science Bulletin
Marshall Sundberg, Editor (2004)
Editorial Committee for Volumes 45/46
P. Mick Richardson (2000)
Vicki Funk (2001)
Ann E. Antlfinger (2002)
Norman C. Ellstrand (2003)
James Mickle (2004)
Representatives to Various Organizations:
AAAS COUNCIL
Vacant
AIBS COUNCIL
Judith Verbeke (2001)
ASSOCIATION OF SYSTEMATICS COLLECTIONS
Laurence E. Skog (2003)
BIENNIAL INCORPORATION, STATE OF CONNECTICUT
Kent E. Holsinger (2000)
COUNCIL OF SCIENTIFIC SOCIETY PRESIDENTS (EACH PRESIDENTELECT)
Patricia Genzel (2000)
NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL COMMISSION ON LIFE SCIENCES BOARD OF BASIC
BIOLOGY
Pam Soltis (2000), Secretary, ex officio
News from the Committees:
Electronic American
Journal of Botany
The electronic site of the American Journal of Botany is just one year
old now. I think that it can be judged a success unequivocally. During
the past year, there have been 681,310 hits to the site. The number of
distinct files served has been 200,607. The number of unique hosts was
79,764. The amount of data down loaded: 16,892,223 KBytes (16.8 GB). There
were 30,064 PDFs (reprints) downloaded from the site. The weekly stats
are more meaningful for the number of distinct files and unique hosts (since
there is no week to week memory of who logged in). Hits per week: 13,102.
Distinct files served: 3,858 (a very good reason why we outsource this!)
Unique hosts per week: 1,534 (this is a good estimate of the number of
computers and thus users logging in). Each week approximately 324,850 KB
of data were downloaded. The average number of PDF files downloaded per
week is 578. We will soon be considering whether we should continue free
access at the online site (currently to April 2001). Schools and academic
use is high. The hits on the site are very responsive to school years.
Botany 2000!
Oregon Convention Center
610 August, 2000 Portland, OR
Symposia and Symposium
Organizers
PASTPRESIDENT'S SYMPOSIUM
"New Frontiers in Botany" (halfday; Monday, 810 am). Organizer: Carol
C. Baskin, School of Biological Sciences, University of Kentucky, Lexington,
KY 405060225. Tele: (606) 2578770, Fax: (606) 2571717, Email: <ccbask0@pop.uky.edu>.
DEVELOPMENTAL AND STRUCTURAL SECTION
Open Space" (halfday). Organizer: Bruce Kirchoff, Department of Biology,
University of North Carolina, P.O. Box 26174, Greensboro, NC 274021674.
Tele: (336) 3345391 (ext. 37), Email: <kirchoff@uncg.edu>.
HISTORICAL SECTION
Botany in the Age of Mendel: A Symposium in Honor of the Centennial
of the Rediscovery of Mendel, and the 50th Year Anniversary of the Publication
of G. L. Stebbins' Variation and Evolution in Plants" (halfday). Organizer:
Vassiliki Betty Smocovitis, Department of History, 4131 Turlington Hall,
University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 326117320. Tele: (352) 3920271,
Fax: (352) 3926927, Email: <bsmocovi@history.ufl.edu>.
PTERIDOLOGY SECTIONAMERICAN FERN SOCIETY (AFS)
Biology and Conservation of the Ophioglossaceae" (fullday). Organizers:
Cindy JohnsonGroh, Department of Biology, GustavusAdolphus College, 800
West College Ave., St. Peter, MN 560821498. Tele: (507) 9337043, Fax: (507)
9336285, Email: <cjgroh@gac.edu>, Donald R. Farrar, Department of Botany,
Iowa State University, Ames, IA 50011. Tele: (515) 2944846, Fax: (515)
2941337, Email: <dfarrar@iastate.edu> & Warren D. Hauk, Department
of Biology, Denison University, Granville, OH 43023. Email:
<Hauk@cc.denison.edu>.
SYSTEMATICS SECTIONASPT
Historical biogeography of the Northern Hemisphere" (halfday). Organizers:
Paul S. Manos, Department of Botany, Duke University, Box 90338, Durham,
NC 277080338. Tele: (919) 6607358, Fax: (919) 6607293, Email: <pmanos@duke.edu>
& Michael J. Donoghue, Harvard University Herbaria, 22 Divinity Ave.,
Cambridge, MA 02138. Tele: (617) 4963374, Fax: (617) 4959484, Email: <mdonoghue@oeb.harvard.edu>
SYSTEMATICS SECTIONASPTIAPT
New frontiers in plant systematics The next 50 years" (halfday). Organizers:
Tod Stuessy, Institut für Botanik, Universität Wien, Rennweg
14, Vienna, A1030, Austria. Tele: 431427754140, Fax: 43142779541, Email:
<tod.stuessy@univie.ac.at> & Wayne Elisens, Department of Botany
& Microbiology, 770 Van Vleet Oval, University of Oklahoma, Norman,
OK 73019. Tele: (405) 3255923, Fax: (405) 3257619, Email: <elisens@ou.edu>
SEVERAL BSA SECTIONSASPTABLSAFS
Scientific outreach for the next millennium" (halfday). Organizer:
Andrea D. Wolfe, Department of Evolution, Ecology, and Organismal Biology,
The Ohio State University, 1735 Neil Ave., Columbus, OH 432101293. Tele:
(614) 2920267, Fax: (614) 2922030, Email: <wolfe.205@osu.edu>.
TEACHING SECTION
Using Educational Technology to Foster Learning Centered Pedagogies"
(halfday). Organizers: Donald P. Buckley, Office of Instructional Technology,
School of Health Sciences, Quinnipiac College, 275 Mt. Carmel Ave., Hamden,
CT 065181940. Tele: (203), 2873467, Fax: (203) 2818706, Email: <Don.Buckley@quinnipiac.edu>
& David W. Kramer, Department of Evolution, Ecology, and Organismal
Biology, Ohio State University at Mansfield, 1680 University Dr., Mansfield,
OH 449061547. Tele: (419) 7554344, Fax: (419) 7554367, Email: <kramer.8@osu.edu>.
Expenditure
of 1999-2000 interest from BSA endowment funds
The BSA ad hoc committee on expenditure of the 1999-2000 interest from
the BSA endowment funds is seeking suggestions from the BSA membership
on how this year's amount of $23,000 might best be spent.
The Endowment Fund guidelines from the BSA Financial Advisory Committee
are: "The purpose of the Endowment Fund is to increase the monetary assets
of the Society in order to provide income to fund major initiatives, travel
grants, scholarships, and other activities
that enhance the effectiveness of the Society to fulfull its Mission"
Our mission statement (from Article 1 of the bylaws) is: "to sustain and
provide improved formal and informal education about plants; to encourage
basic plant research; provide expertise, direction, and position statements
concerning plants and ecosystems; foster
communication within the professional botanical community and between
botanists and the rest of humankind through publications, meetings, and
committees."
The ad hoc committee invites all members of the BSA to make recommendations
regarding the expenditure of this year's interest (keeping the above guidelines
in mind!). The committee will then rank these and make our recommendations
to the BSA Executive Committee by March 1, 2000. Please forward your suggestions
to the chair of the committee, Nancy Dengler (dnelger@botany.utoronto.ca)
by February 1, 2000.
News from the Sections:
Including
Discussion in the Annual Meetings Open Space at BSA August 2000
The Developmental-Structural section is beginning to experiment with
a new symposium format at this year's meeting. Open Space is a format that
allows the participants to determine the content and organize the sessions
on the day of the event (Owen 1997). As such, Open Space allows a group
to deal with the topics that are new, or which were not recognized as important
prior to the start of the conference.
The impulse for Open Space came from the observation that the most valuable
parts of a conference are the informal meetings that take place during
coffee and meal breaks. During these times participants meet old friends,
discusses important issues, and makes plans for the coming year. Open Space
is designed around the idea of a structured coffee break.
Open Space begins in a room set aside as The Marketplace. A facilitator
gives a brief introduction of the concept of Open Space and previews the
activities to follow. After the introduction, participants are asked to
come forward to suggest topics for discussion or presentation. Each topic
becomes one of the sessions offered during the symposium. The person who
suggests a topic becomes that session's convener. The convener is responsible
for the session. He may lead a discussion, present a lecture, or simply
open the floor to contributions from the people in attendance.
After presenting their idea for a session, the conveners post their
topics to a time/room grid, thus scheduling it for later in the symposium.
Participants continue to come forward until the grid is filled, or there
are no more suggestions from the floor.
The main duties of the session conveners are to start the session and
to assure that a record is kept of any discussions. Taking notes can be
especially important because it is a way to share the discussion with participants
in other sessions. The conveners prepare the notes in a legible form and
post or distribute them in The Marketplace. Other people can then
read the notes and add their own comments. In this way, everyone receives
something from every session, whether they attended it or not.
The Marketplace plays a special role in Open Space. This is the
"coffee break" room. Drinks and snacks are continuously available there.
The availability of food and drinks allows participants to visit The
Marketplace whenever they wish. This is particularly important because
of the Law of Two Feet. The Law of Two Feet is the only rule of Open Space.
It states, "If you find yourself in a session for which you have little
or no interest, then it is acceptable to leave." If a session does not
"speak to you," you can leave. When you leave you can join a concurrent
session, or return to The Marketplace. By doing this you remain
an active participant in Open Space. You may have something to contribute
to a concurrent session based on your experience in the one you left, or
you may have a good
onversation over coffee in The Marketplace. In any case, you
now become a kind of "convener of one" and may have something unique to
share with other participants.
At the end of the event everyone meets for a final short session in
The
Marketplace to exchange ideas. This is NOT a time for the coordinators
to report on their sessions. This is done by way of the notes that are
distributed to participants. Rather it is a time when anyone can bring
up an issue or a question, a time when the group begins to chart a path
toward the next meeting.
I hope you will join us on Wednesday, August 9 when we gather in Open
Space to discuss the latest Botanical Research!
Owen, Harrison 1997. Open Space Technology: A User's Guide. 2nd edition.
BerrettKoehler
-Bruce Kirchoff. Department of Biology, University of North Carolina,
P.O. Box 26174, Greensboro, NC 274021674. 3363345391 ext. 37. kirchoff@uncg.edu
Announcements
In Memoriam:
Joseph Andorfer Ewan, 1909-1999
Joseph Andorfer Ewan, after a long and productive career as researcher,
author, botany professor, and bibliophile, died peacefully, with his wife
Nesta Dunn Ewan at his side, on Sunday, December 5, 1999. He was 90 years
old.
Joe was Professor Emeritus at Tulane University, where he had taught
botany and the history of natural history from 1947 to 1977. Throughout
his life, he collected books on the history of natural history. He sold
his collection of more than 5,000 volumes, many of them rare and valuable,
to the Missouri Botanical Garden in 1986, along with his professional papers.
He and Nesta,
who by then had become his professional assistant, moved to St. Louis
to continue their research and publication. They moved back to Louisiana
to be close to family in 1997, after Joe had a stroke.
Joe held many honors, including Guggenheim Fellow and Smithsonian Regents'
Fellow; Founders' Medalist of the Society for the History of Natural History;
Botanical Society of America Award; and the Missouri Botanical Garden's
highest honor, the Henry Shaw Medal. He held honorary doctorates from the
College of William and Mary and Tulane University. Joe, assisted by Nesta,
authored more than 400 books, essays, articles, and reviews, which are
listed in Ewaniana: the writings of Joe and Nesta Ewan. A second
edition of Ewaniana is planned.
Perhaps one of Joe's greatest accomplishments was that of being a mentor
to those who were curious about the natural world. He would treat the most
innocent inquiry as a seed to be nurtured, so that with one question, the
questioner was led through many new doors of knowledge. Joe encouraged
others to reach new heights, perhaps inspiring a student to get more education;
or infusing a floundering career with new meaning; or providing the spark
of interest that would spur his protégé on to investigate
a subject until it turned into a book.
In addition to Nesta, Joe is survived by his daughters Kathleen Harris,
Dorothy Nemecek, and Marjorie Ewan; five grandchildren; and countless friends.
True to character and clear of mind until the very end, among Joe's last
words were "Tell everybody good-bye." While we mourn his death, all of
us who knew Joe Ewan can be grateful we had his presence in our lives for
as long as we did.
-Connie Wolf, Missouri Botanical Garden
William Campbell Dickison,
1941-1999
William C. Dickison died after a long battle with bone marrow cancer
on November 22, 1999. He was born on March 12, 1941 in Jamaica, New York
and grew up in Illinois. Bill received a B. S. in
Education in 1962 from Western Illinois University at Macomb, an M.
A. in Botany in 1964 from Indiana University and his PhD. from Indiana
in 1966. Bill studied under the direction of Prof. James E. Canright, specializing
in morphology and anatomy
of flowering plants, specifically the Dilleniaceae. Upon completion
of the Ph.D., Bill accepted a faculty position at Virginia Polytechnic
Institute; three years later, he joined the Botany Dept at the University
of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He rose through the ranks to Professor,
initially in the Botany, then in the Biology Department at UNC. Bill's
research interests centered on plant anatomy, especially as it could be
applied to understanding the systematics and ecology of some of the more
basal lineages of flowering plants. He also maintained a strong interest
in general aspects of plant morphology, paleobotany and evolution.
Bill was dedicated and conscientious in his teaching, research, and
service to the department , university and botanical community. He taught
such botany courses as plant morphology, plant diversity, plant anatomy,
and angiosperm phylogeny, and in later years, introductory biology. Bill
trained several M. .A. (thesis degree at UNC) students and PhD.'s, some
of whom are themselves in academics and others who work in the public sector.
In all cases, he was exceptionally well organized, always prepared, and
maintained high standards for students and himself. Both in teaching and
research, Bill possessed the gift of grasping the essence of a topic or
concept, and then conveying it effectively.
Bill was a member of the Botanical Society of America, International
Association of Plant Taxonomists, International Association of Wood Anatomists,
Sigma Xi, The Association for Tropical Biology, The Torrey Botanical Club,
and The American Society of Plant Taxonomists. He also belonged to the
Elisha Mitchell Scientific Society, serving as Secretary-Treasurer (1972-1975)
and Editor of the Journal of the Elisha Mitchell Scientific Society
(1975-1981). He helped restructure the council of the International Association
of Wood Anatomists in 1972. He was an invited guest professor at the Botanische
Garten und Institut für Systematic Botanik at the University of Zürich,
Switzerland in 1982. He co-organized, with Richard A. White, an international
symposium dealing with contemporary problems in plant anatomy in 1983,
and they edited a volume of papers from this, entitled Contemporary
Problems in Plant Anatomy, published in 1984. For the past few years,
he has served as editor for the multi-volume series Anatomy of the Dicotyledons,
2nd edition.
Bill systematically studied the wood, flowers, leaves, and pollen of
families of angiosperms such as Dilleniaceae, Connaraceae, Cunoniaceae,
Theaceae, Clethraceae, Ebenaceae, etc in order to better work out their
phylogeny, evolution
ary patterns, and response to diverse environments. His 1975 paper
on vegetative anatomy in the "Bases of Angiosperm Phylogeny" volume of
the Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden is a major contribution, showing
the utility of anatomy in solving problems of angiosperm evolution. More
recently, some of his students have coupled such morphological work with
molecular phylogenetic analysis. His 85 + publications on the structure
of woody flowering plants provide basic information about a large number
of angiosperm families. Bill delved into ecological plant anatomy a bit,
being among the first to point out the need for examining more than one
anatomical feature of a plant in order to deduce modifications reflecting
environmental conditions. He presented many invited talks at national and
international meetings that dealt with angiosperm phylogeny or the systematics
of specific groups of flowering plants (Leguminosae, Hammamelidae). At
the time of his death, Bill had just completed a book manuscript entitled
"Integrative Plant Anatomy" which now is in production with Harcourt/Academic
Press and should be published this year.
Bill is survived by his wife of 36 years, Marlene, a son, Christopher
and wife Cheryl, three grandchildren, his two brothers and one sister.
Donations in his memory can be made to the North Carolina Botanical Garden,
CB# 3375, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, N. C. 27599-3375.
- Patricia G. Gensel, University of North Carolina
Jane Gray, 1929-2000
Jane Gray was born in Omaha, Nebraska on April 19, 1929. She was the
only child of Muriel Barrett Gray and Col. Earnest Gray, a West Point graduate.
She spent much of her youth on Long Island while her father was in charge
of the Port of New York for the Quartermaster Corps during World War II.
Gray received her B.S. degree from Radcliffe College in 1951. While at
Radcliffe/Harvard she studied under Elso Barghoon who interested her in
palynology and paleobotany. She began her graduate studies at the University
of Illinois and while there applied for and received a National Science
Foundation fellowship to study palynology in Copenhagen under Johs. Iversen.
Following on her work in Copenhagen Gray returned to America and entered
graduate school at the University of California at Berkeley where she studied
under Ralph Chaney. She received her Ph.D. from UC-Berkeley in 1958. Her
dissertation
dealt with fossil pollen and spores of the Miocene in eastern Oregon.
She served as an Instructor in the Department of Geology, University of
Texas-Austin, for several years until marrying a fellow professor in the
Biology Department, which automatically led to her dismissal owing to nepotism
rules in force at that time. Unable to find a suitable post in Austin she
took a research position at the Desert Research Institute, University of
Arizona-Tucson where she continued her work on Tertiary pollen and spores.
While at Tucson she became friends with the paleobotanist Lucy Cranwell
Smith who whetted her interest in early land plants. She then moved to
the Museum of Natural History, University of Oregon-Eugene. Subsequently
she joined the Department of Biology at the University of Oregon where
she served until her death. She taught both undergraduate students and
graduate students in biology, geology, geography, and anthropology.
Gray is best known for her work on the early evolution of land plants.
In a series of papers published from the 1970s to the 1990s she overturned
a prevailing paradigm regarding the origin of the first land plants. Gray
showed that land plants, embryophtes, first appeared in the Middle Ordovician
40 millions years earlier than had been previously accepted. Her extensive
work on Ordovcian marine deposits from around the world established beyond
a doubt that resistant-walled spores that could not be attributed to algae,
were geographically widespread, and occurred in large numbers at this time.
Further, Gray's work changed our concept of the nature of the earliest
plants. Previous authorities had thought that vascular plants preceded
bryophytes, but Gray mounted convincing arguments that bryophytes were
first. Evidence that she cited for this conjecture included comparative
studies of fossil spores and those of modern bryophytes, and ecophysiological
data. Subsequently, more detailed comparative analyses and molecular phylogenetic
data have substantiated Gray's views.
At the time of her death Gray was investigating the tenor of atmospheric
carbon dioxide from the Cambrian to the present. Her compilation and correlation
of a massive amount of botanical and geologic data will substantively revise
previous estimates of the amount of atmospheric carbon dioxide. This work
will be completed by her colleagues. She was also working on a groundbreaking
account of the evidence for a widespread
Precambrian nonmarine biota, chiefly at the bacterial level.
Jane Gray was known for her passionate writing style, extraordinary
attention to detail, and command of the literature. Her interests extended
to evolutionary process, and the effects of physical geological factors
and paleoclimatology on ancient floristic communities. Because her ideas
were ahead of her time and iconoclastic, Jane Gray encountered considerable
resistance among her scientific colleagues. But she persisted, accumulating
data that could not be ignored. Because it is classic and pathbreaking,
her work will continue to be cited in future books and articles on early
plant evolution.
Jane Gray taught and mentored many students who found her passion for
science inspiring. Her enthusiasm encouraged many to forge ahead in their
respective areas. Her death on January 9, 2000 of cancer deprives the scientific
community of a highly original, innovative worker who undoubtedly would
have provided even more significant contributions had time permitted. She
will be sorely missed by many colleagues, students, and friends.
-Arthur J. Boucot, Oregon State University
-Linda Graham, University of Wisconsin
-Patricia Sanford, University of Wisconsin
G. Ledyard Stebbins Jr., 1906-2000
Dr. G. Ledyard Stebbins Jr., Professor Emeritus of Genetics at UC Davis,
died January 19th, 2000 at his home in Davis, California. He
was 94.
At Ledyard's memorial service at UC Davis there were many stories about
his driving and singleness of purpose when in the field. There was the
story about his driving toward an interesting plant and straight into a
four foot ditch, an event he barely noted, as he got out of the car and
continued to walk straight on toward the plant of interest. There were
several stories about how fast he walked, striding toward the summits of
mountains, refusing help, even as his health declined in later years. He
was an avid botanist and plant collector until he lost his sight; in looking
through his things, we found his last plant collections, still in his press
_ oaks collected in
1994.
In looking through Ledyard's plant collections, one notes the great
breadth of his interest _ floras of areas near Davis and the Sierra Nevada
of California, the systematics of Navarettia, Antennaria
and, of course, grasses. Some of Ledyard 's last articles were in the publication
"Grasslands", the newsletter of the California Native Grass Association.
In one issue (April, 1997), there is a useful compilation of many of the
articles written by Ledyard on the Poaceae. It is a great resource for
those needing exact citations for his early publications on grasses.
Ledyard asked that memorial contributions in his name be sent to the
UC Davis Herbarium. The Herbarium houses thousands of Stebbins collections,
including all of his vouchers from Stebbins Cold Canyon Reserve. For his
90th birthday, Ledyard had contributions sent to the UC Davis Herbarium
so that we could begin administering a student grant in his name (part
of our larger student grant program). These grants are to be used for field
botany projects that result in specimens that will be deposited in the
UC Davis Herbarium. Any monetary contributions made to the Herbarium in
Ledyard's name will be used to continue the G. Ledyard Stebbins student
grant program. For more information, please contact me at eadean@ucdavis.edu.
-Ellen Dean, University of California-Davis
ART KRUCKEBERG REMINISCES ABOUT
G. LEDYARD STEBBINS
From: Arthur Kruckeberg <ark@u.washington.edu>
During my graduate days at UC Berkeley, Stebbins became a focal point
of my intellectual growth. I took his course in Evolutionary Mechanisms
around l948, at the time he was writing his seminal book, "Variation and
Evolution in Plants" (Columbia Univ. Press, l950). So he was in top form,
delivering exciting lectures, coupled with stage antics to boot: stumbling
off the podium and making cartoon animals on the blackboard.
Stebbins was on my PhD thesis committee and was intrigued with my research
on edaphic races of common plants on serpentine soils. But he fell asleep
during my orals, not an uncommon event for him. Once, at a California Botanical
Society meeting, he introduced the famous palaeo
botanist, Olaf Tedin. Tedin halted briefly during his lecture, which
prompted dozing Stebbins to leap up and start clapping, thinking the talk
was over. One took one's life in his hands to be in a car driven by Stebbins.
Once, crossing the San Francisco Bay Bridge on our way to the famous serpentine
at Tiburon, he turned to talk to us in the rear, and veered into the oncoming
lane. We survived without incident, except for near heart failure. Before
leaving Berkeley, I became Stebbins' research assistant. At that time he
was looking for drought resistance in native grasses. So I made the hybrids
and tested the progeny. Again, fearsome auto trips with him at the wheel,
as we sped through the fog on the way to transplant sites at Davis. His
last paper merits reading by all those interested in plant evolution: "A
brief summary of my ideas on evolution" Amer. Jour. of Botany 86(1999):1207-1208.
My favorite Stebbins quote: "The only generalization or law that holds
in biology is that exceptions exist to every law."
Warren H. Wagner, Jr., 1911-2000
Professor Warren H. Wagner, Jr. (known affectionately to all as Herb)
died on 8 January 2000; he was in his eightieth year. He was probably the
best-known botanist ever to work at the University of Michigan. After Navy
service in the Pacific during World War II, Wagner did his Ph.D. at the
University of California at Berkeley, spent one year at Harvard as an instructor,
and came to the University of Michigan as Assistant Professor of Botany
in 1951. His primary research focus was the systematics, hybridization,
evolution, and evolutionary history of ferns and fernlike plants, but his
interests went far beyond ferns, to include (among many other things) oaks
and other difficult groups of flowering plants, butterflies, and minerals.
His energy was boundless and his enthusiasm famously contagious, which
made him one of the most successful teachers of both undergraduates and
graduate students in the University. After retirement he continued to participate
in the teaching of courses in plant systematics in both Biology and Natural
Resources; indeed, he taught more in retirement than many younger colleagues
ever do. He chaired or co-chaired 45 doctoral committees and served as
a member of over 240 graduate committees, certainly a record in Biology
if not in the University. He served a term as director of the Matthaei
Botanical Garden from 1966 to 1971, but administration was never his strong
suit. He had more fun stirring things up and getting people excited than
smoothing over rough places and finding consensus solu
tions to little problems that did not really matter in the big picture,"
which was one of his favorite phrases. In the 1950s and 60s, working in
collaboration with his wife, Dr. Florence S. Wagner, he published a series
of elegant studies showing that ferns hybridize freely and that hybridization
is a major source of new species in plants. That idea is now widely accepted,
but 45 years ago it contradicted a dogma that had been imported into botany
uncritically from zoology, and the Wagners' beautifully documented research
helped botanists realize that the constraints of plants' habits and habitats
and reproductive styles made a different species concept appropriate for
them. Wagner's attempts to infer the ancestors of the Hawaiian fern genus
Diellia,
and his desire to teach undergraduates how to think about evolutionary
history, led him to propose a method of deducing phylogeny that was radical
at the time, and with characteristic missionary zeal he went around the
country and the world exhorting botanists to abandon their traditionally
sloppy approach to the inference of phylogeny and start using methods that
are explicit and testable.
Wagner's success and influence were widely recognized during his life.
His many honors included election to the National Academy of Sciences in
1985 and the Asa Gray Award from the American Society of Plant Taxonomists
in 1990, and he served as president of seven professional societies [including
the Botanical Society of America, 1977]. He was in wide demand as a speaker
to groups of professional botanists and amateurs, and after the talk he
was likely to sit down at a piano and entertain the astonished guests with
lively honky-tonk playing. He is survived by his wife, Florence, their
children Margaret and Warren, both of Ann Arbor, and two grandsons.
-William R. Anderson, University of Michigan
Personalia
Dr Keith Ferguson
Dr Keith Ferguson recently retired as Deputy Keeper of the Herbarium,
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew was appointed an Officer of the British Empire
-OBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours in 1999 for services to Palynology,Botany
and the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew" The Investiture carried out by Queen
Elizabeth at Buckingham Palace took place in late October 1999.
A CAREER THAT BLOSSOMED
Dr. Shirley Tucker wins the University
of Minnesota's Outstanding Achievement Award.
When Shirley Tucker left the University of CaliforniaDavis in 1956 armed
with a Ph.D. in botany, she ran headlong into the barriers then facing
women in science. For 10 years, she was able to find only temporary teaching
positions with "no potential to gain university status or research funding,"
says University of Minnesota plant biology associate professor Iris Charvat.
That, Charvat believes, is the root of Tucker's commitment to encouraging
students in botany. She frequently goes out of her way to give a junior
scientist or student a rewarding experience," says Charvat, and she maintains
a high level of interest throughout their career."
Tucker's interest in nurturing the next generation of plant biologistsalong
with her internationally known research in floral anatomy and morphology,
plant taxonomy, and lichenologyled the University of Minnesota to recognize
her with an Outstanding Achievement Award in September. The award is the
highest the University grants to its alumni.
Tucker's exceptional career stemmed from a very early interest in botany:
Her father was a plant pathologist at the University, where she would often
play in the greenhouses. My idea of paradise was to be in the warm greenhouse
in the middle of winter," she recalls. Naturally, Tucker pursued botany
degrees at the University, studying with renowned botanist Ernst Abbe,
who became
an early influence and mentor. As she completed her master's program,
Abbe and others counseled her that the University of CaliforniaDavis was
the best place in the country at that time to study plant anatomy . . .
so off I went," she says.
From 1956 to 1966, Tucker worked in nontenure research and teaching
positionsbut it was these early career challenges that led her to excel
in more than one research area. As Charvat points out, lichens differ
greatly from higher plants, and it is most unusual for a scientist to attain
distinction in both areas." As Tucker herself remembers it, she sometimes
didn't have access to certain equipment needed to do plant pathology and
botanyrelated work, so she took to outside work in lichenology. This was
a good alternative when I didn't have access to labs," she says. Lack of
lab access didn't keep her from pursuing external funding. She received
her first National Science Foundation grant in 1957 and has had nearly
continuous NSF funding since then, a strong endorsement of her research
capabilities. Shirley is a highly regarded botanist in the U.S. and internationally
because of the quality and consistency of her work," attests noted plant
anatomist Ray Evert, who worked with Tucker in the Botanical Society of
America.
In 1968, Tucker finally found a tenuretrack, assistant professorship
at Louisiana State University. By 1982, she had achieved the highest possible
rank at LSU: the Boyd Professorship, awarded on the basis of national and
international distinction. Louisiana's environs were especially suitable
for Tucker's research projects and field trips, she says, and adds with
a laugh, It's wild there. Poisonous snakes, quicksand. But, happily, I
can report we never lost a student."
Tucker, who retired from LSU in 1995, lives in California with her entomologist
husband and is an adjunct professor at UCSanta Barbara. Her long list of
accomplishments includes serving as president of the Botanical Society
of America and the American Society of Plant Taxonomists. Ever dedicated
to her alma mater, she chaired the 90th anniversary celebration of CBS'
Lake Itasca Forestry and Biological Station this fall[1999].
-By Angelo Gentile. Photo of Shirley Tucker with her Outstanding Achievement
Award at a symposium in her honor by Tom Foley - reprinted with permission
of: Frontiers fall 1999.
Symposia, Conferences, Meetings
NSF CHAUTAUQUA SHORT-COURSE
Therapeutic
Plants: Biological, Chemical, cultural, and Legal Aspects
July 30-Aug. 3, 2000, Taos, New Mexico
The burgeoning use by the public of herbal medicines and "nutraceuticals"
demands greater attention from academic programs that relate to medical
training. This course is intended for professors in biology, medicine,
environmental studies, and anthropology who want introduce their students
to a wide range of issues impinging on the use of effective medicinal plants,
i.e., not only chemistry and biological activity, but also the impact that
increasing exploitation of these plants has on the environment, the cultural
context of utilization, and governmental interest in regulating trade.
Lectures will focus on summarizing each aspect, as well as integrating
them into an interdisciplinary whole. Emphasis will be on applying these
general concepts to selected therapeutic plants of the Southwest. Integration
of the concepts will be promoted by the field trips, lab exercises, and
discussions. This course will be conducted at SMU-in-Taos at Fort Burgwin,
(Southern Methodist University's Fort Burgwin field campus in the Sangre
de Cristo Mountains near Taos, NM). Participants will be housed on-campus
and will be responsible for costs associated with travel, lodging, food,
and incidentals. Instructor: Roger W. Sanders, Research Associate, Botanical
Research Institute of Texas, Fort Worth, 817-332-4441. Web sites: http://www.engrng.pitt.edu/~chautauq
and http://www.smu.edu/~smutaos
Shrubland
Ecosystem Genetics and Biodiversity
Eleventh Wildland Shrub Symposium
13 - 15 June 2000
The Shrub Research Consortium and Brigham Young University Conferences
and Workshops are sponsoring the Eleventh Wildland Shrub Symposium, June
13-15, 2000 at Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah. The general theme
is Shrubland Ecosystem Genetics and Biodiversity. A mid-symposium field
trip tosoutheastern Utah will feature the systematics, genetics, and diversity
of native shrublands, especially chenopod shrublands. The symposium will
also celebrate two other anniversaries: the 25th anniversa
ry of the establishment of the USDA Forest Service Shrub Sciences Laboratory
and the 100th anniversary of the rediscovery of Mendelian genetics. As
part of the Shrub Sciences Laboratory 25th anniversary celebration, A.
Perry Plummer, USDA Forest Service Research, and Howard C. Stutz, Brigham
Young University, will be honored for their instrumental roles in the establishment
of the laboratory.
Contributed oral and poster presentations are invited on shrubland ecosystem
genetics and biodiversity as well as other aspects of shrubland biology
and management. The proceedings will be published by the USDA Forest Service,
Rocky Mountain Research Station. If you would like to present a paper,
send a title and abstract (< 200 words) to Dr. E. D. McArthur, Shrub
Sciences Laboratory, Rocky Mountain Research Station, 735 North 500 East,
Provo, UT 84606-1856 by March 31, 2000. telephone (801) 377-5717, email
dmcarthur/rmrs_provo@fs.fed.us].
Please send an electronic version on a 3.5" diskette following the format
on the web site (http://coned.byu.edu/cw/shrub
) or submit the abstract directly through the web site. To receive
pre-registration materials and additional information please contact Julie
Jimenez, Conferences and Workshops, Brigham Young University, 147 Harman
Building, PO Box 21516, Provo, UT 84602-1516; (801) 378-6757.
Announcements
USDA-ARS
The USDA-ARS Subtropical Horticulture Research Station is beginning
a new effort to expand its National Germplasm collections of tropical ornamental
species, returning to a tradition begun by David Fairchild in the early
years of the station's history. We would thus like to solicit contributions
from researchers and graduate students in the botanical community who may
have accumulated living collections of potentially ornamental species during
the course of their research and either wish to dispose of these collections
at the termination of a project or merely wish to deposit living vouchers
of these collections in a climate where such germplasm can be maintained
and, in the case of woody species, achieve reproductive size. The SHRS
encompasses 230 acres of diverse soil type, hydrology and microclimate.
USDA respects and obeys all international rules and regulations regarding
biodiversity, and
hopes that this new program can contribute to tropical conservation
goals as well. Material will be accessioned into the GRIN database and
wil be available to bonafide researchers unless requested otherwise by
the contributor. Particular curatorial interests include Acanthaceae and
Rubiaceae, but all plant families are of interest. Please contact Alan
W. Meerow, Research Geneticist and Systematist at (305) 254-3635, email:
miaam@ars-grin.gov.
Visit our web site at: http://www.ars-grin.gov/ars/SoAtlantic/Miami/homeshrs.html.
"Legumes Downunder"
The Fourth International Legume
Conference
2-6 July 2001
The Fourth International Legume Conference will be held July 2-6, 2001
on the campus of Australian National University in Canberra, Australia.
The scientific program includes symposia on systematics, utilization, infraspecific
genetics, land rehabilitation, symbiosis, phytochemistry and electronic
resources. Field trips throughout Australia are being planned in conjunction
with the meeting.
Co-organizers are Mike Crisp, Australian National University, Jim Grimes,
RBG Melbourne, Joe Miller, Centre for Plant Biodiversity Research, Canberra,
and David Morrison, University of Technology, Sydney.
For further details and to express interest in attending the conference
please check the website at http://www.science.uts.edu.au/sasb/legumes.html
PRIVATE
GARDEN FOUNDATION FUNDS MAJOR PLANT PROJECT
The Chanticleer Foundation of Pennsylvania has awarded major funding
to the Flora of North America project to continue the production
of the Flora volumes. The foundation has committed $432,000 for
2000, with the expectation of funding at that level for six years, for
a total of nearly #3 million.
Flora of North America (FNA) is large-scale, collaborative project
involving many botanical institutions. Started in the early 1980s, it is
undertaken by more than 800 North American botanists to provide authoritative,
up-to-date information on the names, relationships, characteristics, and
distributions of the approximately 20,700 species of plants that grow naturally
in North America north of Mexico. It is a compilation of the best knowledge
available on the patterns of biodiversity among plants in the continental
US and Canada.
The 2000 grant will be administered by Nancy R. Morin, executive director
of The Arboretum at Flagstaff. She is former convening editor of the Flora
and now is the Southwest Regional Coordinator for the project. Three volumes
have been published and a fourth is in press, out of a total of 30 volumes
to be published by Oxford University Press-U.S. Authors, reviewers, and
editors contribute their time to FNA while working at their home institutions.
In the past, the FNA project has received grants to fund support staff
located initially at Missouri Botanical Garden in St. Louis and now also
at several other editorial centers. That funding had come to an end in
1999 and, although editorial centers donated additional staff time to keep
the project going, the future of the project was uncertain. Support from
the Chanticleer Foundation will make it possible to hire sufficient staff
at a number of editorial centers to continue the project and increase production
significantly.
The Chanticleer Foundation was established by Adolph Rosengarten, Jr.
to provide the framework to develop and maintain his 31-acre estate as
a pleasure garden open to the public. Located in Wayne, Pennsylvania, on
the Main Line outside Philadelphia, Chanticleer has become a garden of
remarkable beauty under the leadership of Christopher Woods, its director.
It was opened to the public in 1993 and has been featured in many books,
magazines, and television programs on gardens and gardening.
In addition to supporting the Chanticleer garden, the Chanticleer Foundation
Board supports important local and regional horticultural activities and
wished to support a horticultural and
educational project of national and international significance. They
selected Flora of North American to fulfill this goal. Many of the
plants treated in this work are important horticulturally, others are relatives
of cultivated plants, have potential for ornamental horticulture, or contain
genetic material that may be important in developing new horticultural
varieties. Flora of North America treats all plants of conservation
concern and all invasive plants.
More information on Flora of North America can be found on the
Internet at more information on Chanticleer can be found at
Images
of Vascular Plant Type Specimens at The New York Botanical Garden are now
live!
Approximately 2400 high-resolution images of herbarium specimens from
the families Annonaceae, Ericaceae, Lecythidaceae, and New World Rutaceae
can be found by searching our catalog or by viewing the lists of taxa at
http://www.nybg.org/bsci/hcol/vasc/. Eventually, all of NYBG's 75,000 vascular
plant type specimens will be imaged and viewable through our on-line catalog.
Images of Cyperaceae, Elaphoglossum, and Scrophulariaceae types wil be
added to our catalog in the near future. A full description of the project,
including a manual (in PDF) for imaging plant specimens can be found at:
http://www.nybg.org/baci/herbarium_imaging/. The New York Botanical Garden
acknowledges the Xerox Foundation for funding and students of the Biomedical
Photographic Communications Department of the Rochester Institute of Technology
for technical assistance. Please direct any questions or comments about
NYBT's imaging project to Gord Lemon (glemon@nybg.org).
Positions Available
Collections Manager
The Louisiana State University Herbarium, Department of Biological Sciences,
invites applications for the position of collections manager. Minimum qualifications
include a Masters degree or equivalent in plant systematics or related
field and 2-4 years related experience, or a Ph.D. specializing in plant
systematics. Research and publication history sufficient to qualify for
Graduate Faculty affiliate status is desired. Herbarium experience and
familiarity with our regional flora and knowledge of computers and database
management preferred. Responsibilities include herbarium collections management;
the supervision and training of students and others workers in herbarium
activities, development and management of digital herbarium data bases;
assisting the scientific community, general public, and governmental agencies
in plant identification and the provision of pertinent technical information;
and participation in funding raising and grant proposal preparation. The
position provides opportunities for research related to plant systematics
or herbarium management and participation in the academic development and
research of graduate students. Salary commensurate with qualifications
and experience. Start date is approximately June 1, 2000; application deadline
March 31, 2000, or until an applicant is selected. Send letter of application,
resume, and names of at least three references to L. Urbatsch, Department
of Biological Sciences, 508 Life Sciences Building, Ref. log # 000183,
Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA 70803, Phone (225) 388-8555,
FAX (225) 388-2597, email: leu@lsu.edu.
Graduate (M.S.)
Assistantship - Plant Anatomy/Development - Emporia State University
Funding is available for a master's - level graduate research assistantship
in the field of plant anatomy and development. Support could begin as early
as summer, 2000. Research will focus on various aspects of the developmental
anatomy of the Kansas noxious weed, Lespedeza cuneata, serezia lespedeza,
and be part of a broader, multiple year, research program to understand
the basic biology of the plant.
Emporia State University is a comprehensive university in the Kansas
Regents System. It is located in Emporia, Kansas, on the eastern flank
of the Flint Hills, half an hour from the National Tallgrass Prairie Preserve
and several large federal reservoirs. Additional information about the
university and the department may be found at the following sites: <http://www.emporia.edu/>
and <http://www.emporia.edu/biosci/biology.htm>.
Interested students should apply for admission to the University through
the Department of Biological Sciences. All necessary forms can be downloaded
from the Biology Division web site under Degree Requirements. For additional
information contact: Marshall Sundberg, Division of Biological Sciences,
Emporia State University, Emporia, KS 66801. Ph: 316-341-5605, FAX 316-341-5607,
E-mail sundberm@emporia.edu.
K-8 Teacher Training
local funding agencies to support classroom activities. Each participant
will disseminate this information to other teachers within the school district
and through a webpage which will be constructed as the program progresses.
The intended purpose of the program is to emphasize the importance of plants
and plant biology in K-8 science curriculum.
-D. Timothy Gerber, Biology Dept., University of Wisconsin - La Crosse,
1725 State St. La Crosse, WI 54601. 608.785.6977 (office) 608.785.6959
(fax)
Lucille Slinger (School of Education/University of Wisconsin - La Crosse)
and D. Timothy Gerber (BSA member, Biology Dept./UW-L) were awarded a 3
year, $120,000 Eisenhower grant to develop a K-8 teacher training program
in association with the School District of Onalaska, WI. "Lead" teachers
who participate in the program will (1) be exposed to plant-based resources
and materials, (2) develop instructional plans for plant-based classroom
activities which meet state and national science standards, and (3) write
mini-grant proposals to
Book Reviews
In this issue:
Economic Botany:
p. 24 The Emergence of Agriculture
Bruce D. Smith 1998 -Laura A. Morrison
p. 24 Fundamentals of Weed Science,
2nd ed Robert L. Zimdahl -Laura A. Morrison
Physiology:
p. 25 C4 Plant Biology Rowan F. Sage
and Russell K. Monson, (eds.)1999-John Skillman
p. 26
Plant Responses to Environmental Stresses: From Phytohormones to Ge - nome
Reorganization H.R. Lerner (ed.) 1999 -John Z. Kiss
Systematics:
p. 26 American Bamboos Emmet J. Judziewicz
1999 -Annemarie Jameson
p. 27 Flora of the Northeast. A Manual of
the Vascular Flora of New England and Adjacent New York Dennis
W. Magee and Harry E. Ahles 1999-Neil A. Harriman
p. 28 Flora of Russia: The European Part and Bordering
Regions 1999-Neil Harriman
p. 29 Wild Orchids of Texas J.
Liggio and A.O. Liggio with D. H. Riskind 1999- Joseph Arditti
The Emergence of Agriculture.
Bruce D. Smith. 1998. ISBN 0-7167-6030-4. (paper US $19.95). 231 pp. Scientific
American Library, W.H. Freeman & Co., 41 Madison Ave., New York, NY
10010 The 1997 American Archaeology Book Award for the hardback edition
of The Emergence of Agriculture (1995), justly honors Bruce Smith's efforts
to tell the story of our early agricultural beginnings. Reviewers across
a spectrum of disciplines also have given laudatory praise to the accomplishments
of this book. Now the paperback edition is out, with significant changes
and updates, all at an enticingly low price a bargain for such a colorfully
illustrated book with an engaging scientific tale. In piecing together
the puzzle of when, where, why, and how human societies moved from hunting/gathering
to agriculture, Smith weaves an elaborate tapestry of evidence into a readable
story that depicts the common threads linking the independent foundations
of agriculture on five continents. The Emergence of Agriculture shows how
necessary it is to integrate the complementary perspectives and scattered
findings of archaeology and biology, if we are to successfully decipher
our pre-historical agricultural beginnings. As Smith notes in the Preface,
the topic is typically treated in isolated pieces whether from the narrow
perspective of one scientific discipline or from a limited handling restricted
to either plants or animals and to one region rather than a global view.
In trying to remedy this situation with his book, Smith does an admirable
job of attaining his goal to present a comprehensive consideration of
the origins of agriculture".
Kudos aside, there are other reasons to pay attention to this book.
From the perspective of the plant sciences, it has promising potential
as a classroom text, either alone or as a companion to Jack Harlan's Crops
and Man (American Society of Agronomy, 1992). And here I reveal my bias
in selecting The Emergence of Agriculture for review. From my own educational
soapbox, I hold it out as both a book and a subject to which plant science
educators should pay attention. There are two reasons for this - (1) agriculture
is not divorced from evolution and (2) biotechnology is rapidly changing
the picture of domesticated species. Students of agriculture should be
taught the pre-historical beginnings of their subject. Students of evolution,
particularly those who have never considered domesticated plants beyond
the grocery shelf and home garden, should be challenged with the evolutionary
model that domestication presents. Also, if we fail to give more attention
in the classroom to the roots of agriculture, we risk being ill prepared
for the evolutionary surprises, and fear-driven societal resistance, that
lie ahead with genetically manipulated organisms. Bruce Smith has provided
an ideal educational tool for these tasks. He has produced a carefully
crafted book for the layman and scientist alike. -Laura A. Morrison, Department
of Crop & Soil Science, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR 97331-3002.
Fundamentals of Weed Science,
2nd edition, Robert L. Zimdahl, 1999. ISBN: 0-12-781062-5. (hardcover
US $59.95). 556 pp. Academic Press, 525 B Street, San Diego, CA 92101.
This text is currently used for undergraduate/graduate courses in weed
science. It gives a broad view of weed management - what weeds are, what
ecological and physiological factors must be considered in weed control,
which control methods are appropriate for a given weed problem, how herbicides
operate. In this respect, Robert Zimdahl deserves credit for the comprehensive
scope of his book. However, from the view of a botanist, he does not offer
a careful presentation of weed biology. Zimdahl handles weeds as if these
unwelcome plants are biological entities that are separate and apart from
their brethren in the plant kingdom. Whatever definition one chooses, the
concept of a weed embodies a human bias directed against a given plant
species. In the Fundamentals of Weed Science, this perspective is pervasive.
Treatment of fundamental components of plant science taxonomy, reproductive
biology, ecology, and plant competition is structured on this artificial
concept of weeds. It would be more accurate to discuss the biology of plants
that evolve in the ever-changing ecology of human disturbances. Other weaknesses
mar the text. In Chapter 20. Weed Science: The Future, Zimdahl refers to
the genetic phenomena of epistasis and pleiotropy in a speculative discussion
of the risks of genetic engineering. His definition of epistasis, the suppression
of gene expression by one or more other genes (p. 509), is either a bad
choice of wording or an error in his understanding of epistasis more
accurately defined as one gene mask[ing] the effects of another (Verne
Grant: Genetics of Flowering Plants, 1975). A similarly inexact handling
of the terminology and principles of biology is common throughout the text.
Another problem is the small number of citations to recent research in
weed science and relevant disciplines. In a discussion of documented crop/weed
hybridization and gene flow events, Zimdahl cites two newspaper articles
rather than the current (and growing) scientific literature on herbicide-resistant
plants. A great deal of information is covered in this text, but it is
not very well organized and often shows a superficial handling of complex
subjects. -Laura A. Morrison, Department of Crop & Soil Science, Oregon
State University, Corvallis, OR 97331-3002.
C4 Plant Biology Rowan F. Sage and Russell
K. Monson, editors. 1999. ISBN 0-12-614440-0 (cloth US $84.95) 596 pp Academic
Press 525 Street, Suite 1900, San Diego, California 92101-4495 USA. -Of
the approximately quarter million described flowering plant species, roughly
90% rely upon C3 photosynthesis for carbon gain. Another 7% fix carbon,
to one degree or another, by way of Crassulacean acid metabolism (CAM),
a physiology often associated with succulent plants from arid habitats.
C4 photosynthesis, a physiology best known in tropical grasses, is only
found in 2,000 to 8,000 plant species. Given that this photosynthetic pathway
accounts for, at best, a trifling 3% of flowering plant species, one might
well ask if there is sufficient interest in C4 plant biology to warrant
an entire volume on the topic. But after reading this new book on the subject
edited by Rowan F. Sage and Russell K. Monson, I was left wondering why
it hadn't been written sooner! The details and consequences of C4 photosynthesis
touch upon every imaginable facet of plant biology; from the fine tuning
of photosynthetic gene expression to the origins and expansion of agriculture,
from the intricacies of leaf structure to the uncertainties of ecosystem
responses to changing climates, from deciphering the evolutionary history
of flowering plants to describing existing patterns in plant biogeography.
Moreover, the discussion of any one photosynthetic pathway only has meaning
in a comparative context. Thus, in a broad sense this book is really about
all of plant biology. The breadth and the depth of this subject is impressively
rendered in Sage and Monson's book, C4 Plant Biology.
In multi-authored volumes on a single topic it is not unusual to find
that the coverage runs thick on some subjects and thin on others, a bit
like a patchwork quilt. This is not the case with this book. The editors
have done an outstanding job of identifying the topics to be covered, selecting
the invited contributors, and arranging the material in a thoughtful and
inviting sequence. Although writing styles varied from chapter to chapter
the writing standards were consistently high. When there was subject overlap
the information was complementary rather than repetitive. For example,
the "multiple flavors" of C4, characterized by the bundle sheath decarboxylation
step in different C4 species (NADP-ME, NAD-ME, PEP-CK), is discussed from
several contrasting vantage points over the course of the book. Early on
we are given the details of how these different subgroups vary in terms
of biochemistry and regulation. In another chapter, the history is recounted
of how these distinctions were first experimentally unveiled nearly 30
years ago. Later we are told how these differences in biochemistry translate
into differences in leaf development and structure. In subsequent chapters
we find out how these different C4 subgroups perform in ecological and
agricultural systems. Finally, we are cautioned that consderable phylogenetic
and physiological variation exists within, as well as, between each of
the C4 subgroups. Rather than being redundant, the varied coverage on this
one topic left me with a new, enriched appreciation of what is often presented
as a subtle, if not trivial, distinction. This example is typical of the
book as a whole and I found there
to be little unnecessary repetition of subjects. I was also left with
few unanswered questions on the subject of C4 plant biology that had not
been posed by the authors themselves. This multi-authored volume is better
compared to a rich and well-planned tapestry than to a patchwork quilt.
With all this discussion of the superb execution of C4 Plant Biology,
it is worth outlining the actual structure of the book. It is divided up
into five multiple chapter sections. Part I called "Perspectives"
contains a chapter by Sage that incorporates ecophysiological, paleoecological,
and evolutionary perspectives to help explain why the CO2 concentrating
mechanism of C4 photosynthesis might exist at all. This chapter simultaneously
provides a useful and informative overview for the rest of the book. Part
I also includes a chapter by one of the grand old gentlemen in plant biochemistry,
Marshall Hatch. Hatch, one of the first to identify and elucidate C4 photosynthesis,
gives his personal historical perspective to how the initial discovery
was made and to subsequent findings on the mechanisms of this photosynthetic
pathway. This chapter also highlights some questions that remain unanswered
including the poor quantification of bundle-sheath leakiness, an issue
that resurfaces many times in the book. Part II, entitled "Structure-Function
of the C4 Syndrome", reviews the biochemistry and regulation of C4
photosynthesis, describes the developmental anatomy of leaves in C4 plants,
and summarizes a model of C4 photosynthesis linking cellular biochemistry
to leaf gas exchange. Part III, entitled "Ecology of C4 Photosynthesis",
outlines aspects of the ecophysiology, community ecology, and the biogeography
of C4 plants. Alan Knapp and Ernesto Medina contributed a chapter which
compares the ecology of C4 grasses in neotropical savannas to that of the
grasslands of North America. I was afraid this comparison, and the chapter
itself, would be contrived and of little value. To the contrary, this comparision
was quite informative and I found myself wishing that other C4 dominated
ecosystems had been considered in the same way. Part IV, entitled "The
Evolution of C4 Photosynthesis", includes chapters that consider comparative
biochemistry and ecophysiology of known C3-C4 intermediate species, review
the current understanding of the phylogenies of C4 species, and examine
the paleontological records on C4 plants, climate, and ecosystems. Part
V, entitled "C4 Plants and Humanity", contains a chapter by Harold
Brown which reviews the agronomic implications of C4 photosynthesis. Information
contained in this chapter may be useful to those of us who find ourselves
sometimes explaining photosynthesis to students with no interest in the
subject. Perhaps by pointing out some of the "real world" statistics presented
in Brown's chapter (e.g., 14 of 18 of the most economically important weeds
in the world are C4 plants), the details of photorespiration and carbon
concentrating mechanisms will begin to have more relevance to some of our
more recalcitrant students. Part V also has a chapter on the position of
C4 species in agricultural origins and the development of human societies.
This final section ends with a chapter on the taxonomic distribution of
C4 photosynthesis. This chapter by Sage, Li and Monson is an important
contribution. It includes several tables listing
known C4 taxa down to the level of genus. This will be valuable for
ecologists, taxonomists, and others seeking information on photosynthetic
pathway identification. Although such lists have existed before they have
not been as readily accessible. This text will be easily retrieved at most
libraries with a simple search under "C4 plants", or better yet, it will
be as near as your bookshelf!
Despite my encouragement that this volume be read in it's entirety I
know that more often it will be used as reference and consulted for information
on specific topics. This leads me to my only substantial criticism of this
book. The index is inadequate. Many keywords were not even listed in the
index. One obvious example is CAM. Neither "CAM" or "Crassulacean acid
metabolism" appear in the index even though it is discussed at least 18
different times in the book. There are also keywords in the index for which
all the entries are not included. "Photorespiration" is listed in the index
as having only one entry (in chapter 1) even though it is also an important
part of chapters 6 and 7 and is discussed explicitly at least five other
times in the book. Unfortunately this will hinder the use of this book
as a quick reference on many relevant subjects.
Despite this one deficiency, C4 Plant Biology will be of great
value to people with interests in photosynthesis and plant ecophysiology.
Sage and Monson's book also has much to offer to a broader audience, including
anthropologists, paleontologists, and plant biologists of every kind. An
A+ for C4! -John Skillman, Department of Biology, California State University,
5500 University Parkway, San Bernardino, CA. 92407-2397.
Plant
Responses to Environmental Stresses : From Phytohormones to Genome Reorganization.
H. R. Lerner (Editor); 1999; Marcel Dekker Inc; ISBN: 0824700449 ($195)
-Plants have a remarkable ability to cope with a wide variety of challenges
from their environment. A list of these stresses includes temperature extremes,
flooding (or water deficits), pathogens, nutrient deficiency, oxygen deficiency,
and excess salinity. Some of these challenges are transient while others
may become more or less permanent throughout the life of the plant. As
the title implies, this work discusses environmental stresses from the
perspective of many levels of organization. The topics discussed are very
relevant to agriculture and biotechnology.
Plant Responses to Environmental Stresses provides a comprehensive review
of stress physiology for an advanced audience. The book is divided into
two parts of fifteen chapters each, and the chapters are written by a group
of international experts in their respective fields. Although the first
part is supposed to provide the reader with general concepts while the
second part contains information on specific stresses, the organizational
difference really is more fluid. Each chapter has a considerable list of
references, and in most cases (although not all), these references are
current to 1997.
The first two chapters, while providing general background to stress
physiology, also had extensive consideration of issues related to the philosophy
of how to conduct scientific research. Chapter 2 entitled "The importance
of individuality" had a fascinating discussion on the merits of a reductionist
approach versus a more holistic approach to science.
As is typical in such large work with multi-authored chapters, the quality
of the treatment is uneven. Some of the chapters are well written with
nice figures and excellent summary tables while others have dense prose
and lack the latest references. In general, I would have liked to have
seen more illustrations and summary diagrams to make for a more user-friendly
book for those outside the immediate field. However, most of these review-type
articles are very useful and timely.
This book is for advanced graduate students and researchers in the field
of stress physiology. I also recommend it for acquisition by university
libraries since it will provide a good resource for students and faculty
in the plant sciences. -John Z. Kiss, Department of Botany, Miami University,
Oxford, OH.
American Bamboos. Emmet J. Judziewicz,
Lynn G. Clark, Ximena Londoño, Margaret J. Stern. 1999. ISBN 1-56098-569-0
(cloth US $45.00). 392 pp. Smithsonian Institution Press, 470 L'Enfant
Plaza, Suite 7100, Washington, D.C. 20560 -Emmet J. Judziewicz et al. have
delivered a volume that is as useful as it is beautiful. American Bamboos
has the benefit of having been prepared by individuals on the forefront
of bamboo and grass systematics. It therefore has the strength of their
expertise and years of experience in its presentation of the bamboos of
the Americas.
Even amongst botanists, the grasses and their allies are frequently
viewed as enigmatic. Their flowers are small, and to the untrained eye
indecipherable. Many of us never progress beyond the adage, Sedges have
edges, rushes are round, and grasses are hollow like holes in the ground".
The authors introduce to their anatomy with clear simple language and many
illustrations. This is not surprising considering that one of the authors,
Lynn G. Clark, was the editor for the recently republished, Agnes Chase's
First Book of the Grasses.
The authors then provide us with a key to the tribes of the American
bamboos and basal grasses. This key is followed by sections devoted to
the woody and herbaceous bamboos and the basal grasses. The sections of
woody and herbaceous bamboos each has a key to the genera within the tribe.
Each genera is introduced with a concise description of the genera and
what is known about it. The descriptions
include distribution maps, photos, illustrations, a listing of all
known species, and a synopsis of what is known about their ecological role
and human usage. Clearly both the keys and the descriptions will be a boon
to researchers in the Americas.
This volume is the first to provide an alternative to F. A. McClure's
1973 publication, Genera of Bamboos Native to the New World. McClure's
volume will be well known to bamboo systematists and enthusiasts, but is
likely to be unknown to anyone else. It is out of print, and is passed
from hand to hand by those with need of it. Needless to say, since its
1973 publication date DNA and phylogenetic systematics have continued to
expand our understanding of grass and bamboo systematics. Judziewicz et
al. have effectively placed this information within the reach of all, as
American
Bamboos has the affordable price of $45.00.
American Bamboos is not only a terrific scientific reference
and basic introduction to grass anatomy, it is a beautiful book. The pages
are peppered with photographs and illustrations that any botanical enthusiast
will be pleased with. My only criticism is that the text, though clear
and concise, is far from lyrical. I recommend this book to beginning botanists
wanting to learn grasses and bamboos as well as researchers in the American
tropics. I would also highly recommend this volume to grass and bamboo
systematists, but they are likely to have already purchased a copy. -Annemarie
Jameson, University of Miami, Department of Biology, P.O. Box 249118, Coral
Gables, FL 33124-0421
Literature Cited:
Clark, Lynn G. and Richard W. Pohl (Eds.) 1996. Agnes Chase's First
Book of the Grasses: The Structure of Grasses Explained for Beginners.
Smithsonian Institution Press. ISBN: 1-56098-656-5
McClure, F.A. 1973. Genera of Bamboos Native to the New World (Gramineae:
Bambusoideae) Thomas R. Soderstrom (Ed) Smithsonian Contributions to
Botany Number 9.
Flora of the Northeast. A Manual of the
Vascular Flora of New England and Adjacent New York. Magee, Dennis
W. and Harry E. Ahles . 1999. University of Massachusetts Press, Amherst,
MA 01004. Hardcover, xxxi + 1214 pp., ISBN 1-55849-189-9. $69.95. -One
suspects there are more floras covering all or part of New England than
any other similar-sized piece of North America. Now there is another, but
different in so many ways from its predecessors.
The first author is vice-president of Normandeau Associates, Inc., an
environmental consulting firm at 25 Nashua Road, Bedford, New Hampshire
03110. Flora writing has now migrated from the museum and academic world
into the business world. That's not a bad thing: I suspect both worlds
will be the better for it.
The second author, Harry E. Ahles, passed away in early 1981. Manual
of the Vascular Flora of the Carolinas (1965), which he co-authored,
is well known in the botanical community and is still in print.
Magee makes it clear that the contribution of Ahles to the present work
is very significant, that Ahles had compiled vast amounts of information
toward such a flora, all left behind at the University of Massachusetts.
From Ahles came the notion of extending the coverage to a more natural
western boundary, the Hudson River. Hence, the easternmost tier of counties
in New York is included, from the Canadian border south to and including
all of Long Island. All the counties are shown and named on an outline
map on page xvii. At a reduced size, this outline map is repeated as a
dot map (one dot per county) for each species covered in the manual.
The book has artificial keys to a fare-thee-well. The stress is on identification.
The book is so far removed from the academy that the distinction between
artificial and natural keys isn't even made. Generally, it seems that professorial
types cannot resist calling attention to the distinction. There is a nice
glossary but way at the back. The sequence of families is Engler &
Prantl, without apology, justified on the basis of familiarity to most
botanists. The authors do treat Liliaceae narrowly, and treat the remainder
in ten other families. Fashions change.
Nearly all generic names and specific epithets are translated or explained,
in the pattern of Gray's Manual. After Rubus arenicola, [sand
dweller], we're told that the specific epithet is for Arundel, York Co.,
Maine; this is surely one of those errors that prove we are all human,
that no amount of proofreading will ever prevent. (The intention was to
account for the name Rubus arundelanus, which is synonymized under
Rubus
arenicola.) Each scientific name is given an acute accent mark to indicate
where the stress falls; some will quibble, but I expect most of these are
fairly usual, and they are helpful in getting students past the barrier
of pronouncing Latin names. Family and generic descriptions are ample,
species descriptions are essentially absent.
Every genus has at least one species illustrated in line drawings by
Abigail Rorer. She is credited both on the cover and the title page, and
she deserves it. Her drawings, with the reduction from lifesize indicated,
are clear, simple, and diagnostic. There are 995 of them, it says in the
preface. One is better than the next, and Ms. Rorer is to be congratulated
on a difficult job well done.
The antecedents of this manual are almost unmentioned. One might have
expected a generous dose of history, but there is none. No explanation
is offered, but I suspect the sheer bulk of the book militated against
making it any larger. The eighth edition of Gray's Manual is mentioned
in passing, along with two editions of Gleason & Cronquist. There are
a few other works that are acknowledged, but the citations cease with 1992.
There is no mention whatever of Frank Conkling Seymour's The Flora of
New England, second edition, fifth printing with supplement, 1997.
(I believe this is the latest edition and printing.) But even the first
edition, 1969, is unmentioned. Tryon & Moran, The Ferns and Allied
Plants of New England, 1997, is not cited. No monographs are cited;
Flora
of North America is not mentioned. There are no nomen
clatural innovations, so far as I could detect, and nomenclatural remarks
are suppressed throughout, even to the extent of not indicating when a
name is officially conserved.
Many botanists will want to buy this book. Before you do, check some
websites, especially bestbookbuys.com. Prices (including shipping) range
from $54 to $81. A few weeks ago, the lowest price I found was $45. (By
contrast, the range in price for the New England ferns book is four cents!)
_ Neil A. Harriman, Biology Department, University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh,
Oshkosh, WI 54901; harriman@uwosh.edu.
Flora of Russia. The European part and bordering
regions. Andrej Aleksandrovich Federov (ed.). Vol. 2. English translation,
1999. ISBN 9054107529 for this volume, 9054107502 for the set (hardcover
US$100). xvi + 323 pp. A.A. Balkema Publishers, Old Post Road, Brookfield,
VT 05036. _The original in Russian dates from 1976. Both versions include
Orchidaceae, Juncaceae, Cyperaceae, and Commelinaceae. In English translation,
volumes 1-4 have appeared (or will shortly); volumes 5-11 are expected
to appear through 2003. (Most of this information is copied from www.koeltz.com,
and is not given in the book.)
Vast political changes have swept the region since the Russian original
was prepared; in modern terms, the flora covers Russia east to the Ural
Mountains and on the west Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Belarus, Ukraine,
and Moldova. The map on p. xiv has not been updated, and properly so, because
that would have involved updating all the range statements as well.
The treatments are those of a quarter of a century ago; this is a faithful
translation, not a restudy. The English features such terms as "ecdemic,"
which I cannot find in a modern dictionary; resorting to an older tome,
I find it means "not endemic; of foreign origin." Stands to reason, but
it was a new one to me. In general, it appears the English is quite colloquial
_ the translators are not credited, but they have labored well.
The peculiar language of taxonomic botany was probably unknown to the
translators, however. Hence, we have on p. 148 (of the translation, p.
114 of the Russian original) a remark on Eleocharis oxystachys,
to the effect that "this name, in fact, was never approved." This occurs
again on p. 152 (p. 116 of the original), this time with respect to Eleocharis
carinata. There is no approval process in matters nomenclatural;
I suspect the statement might have been rendered more freely as "this name,
in fact, was never properly published by the rules of the International
Code of Botanical Nomenclature." This sort of thing must be very vexing
to a translator, who can only render the translation but not the meaning.
[Both names are given in Index Kewensis as having been published
in 1977, a year after this volume appeared in Russian.]
There are few illustrations, and as reproduced are often overinked,
but I suspect they were in the original, too. The keys appear to be artificial
and generally workable. There are sometimes no species descriptions, but
the legs in the keys often run to five or more lines, which accomplishes
the same thing. Nomenclatural references are amply cited, including type
localities. For further particulars, one could go to the massive Flora
USSR for more detailed descriptions of the species, or one might consult
Flora
Europaea, whose original volumes are approximately contemporaneous.
(Volume 5 of Flora Europaea, which includes these four monocot families,
was published in 1980; the relevant volumes of Flora USSR date from
1935.)
Flora Europaea does not render these volumes on the flora of
European Russia useless, because the Russian authors are allowed to deal
at some length with questions of synonymy, local variation, problems of
typification, and the like _ the format adopted for Flora Europaea
encouraged brevity, not prolixity. There are nomenclatural innovations
included, though their priority dates from the original, not from this
translation. A relatively inaccessible literature is now opened and an
unfortunate linguistic barrier is crossed. _ Neil A. Harriman, Biology
Department, University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, Oshkosh, WI 54901; harriman@uwosh.edu
Wild Orchids of Texas J. Liggio
and A. O. Liggio with D. H. Riskind as scientific advisor, 1999. ISBN 0-292-74712-8
(hard cover, no price given). 228 pp. University of Texas Press, P. O.
Box, 7819, Austin, TX 78713-7819. _ Most native orchids in the U. S. A.
are terrestrial, not easy to find and see, small and therefore hard to
appreciate even if attractive as well as not easy to grow and recalcitrant
when it comes to germination and propagation through tissue culture. They
are also endangered, threatened and not subject to as much interest as
their large, showy an attention- grabbing tropical cousins. This is unfortunate
because our orchids are every bit as beautiful as their better known relatives.
And, every state has its own native species. Every state . . . even Texas.
This book refers to the orchids of the Lone Star state as Texas Treasures
and then proceeds to show that this is exactly what they are. As a result
the book is pretty, but is also serious and erudite. It is also a treasure
itself.
Like so many other orchid books this one starts with a general discussions
of the plants themselves. It does not describe vegetative characteristics
of orchids in general, but it includes short descriptions of flowers, pollination,
apomixis, seeds and their germination, mycorrhiza, dormancy, habitats,
ecology and growth habits.
Most of the discussions are illuminating. A glaring exception is the
section on the so called saprophytic orchids. The entire concept is wrong.
There are no saprophytic orchids. The so called saprophytic orchids are
actually parasitic on their fungi. They do not "derive nutrients from decaying
leaves and vegetable matter." All of the so called parasitic orchids derive
nutrients from their fungi. They are mycotrophic parasitic plants. It is
incorrect to write about them as saprophytic plants which can be referred
to as mycotrophic.
A welcome section which classifies the Texas orchids by color precedes
the genus and species descriptions which occupy most of the book (pp. 61-203).
The descriptions are generally detailed, clear and include many details.
They are accompanied by distribution maps and photographs. Some even include
details that have been ignored in other books as, for example, a note about
the allergic reaction caused by Cypripedium. Most descriptions are
illustrated by excellent photographs. Deiregyne is an exception
for a good reason: Deiregyne confusa has not been found in the United
States since 1931. Still, if an older (or any kind of) illustration exists
it should have been included just to give an idea about this orchid.
The photographs are excellent. However in some cases they do not show
enough detail as for example Listera australis on pages 119 and
120 and all of the Malaxis species (pages 123. 125 and 127). It
would have been nice to include closeups as was done with Spiranthes
odorata (pages 180, 182), Spiranthes magnicamporum (pages
174, 175) and Spiranhes parksii (pages 182, 184).
Appendices dealing with the sources of scientific names, excluded species
and distribution by county, listings of literature as well as a good index
conclude the book.
I am sure that as with all orchid books there will be taxonomists which
will not agree with at least some the classification and nomenclature used
by the authors. This is not because some of the species may or may not
be misnamed or misclassified. It is because orchid taxonomists can never
agree with each other. For me most taxonomic and nomenclatural squabbles
are of little or no relevance. An orchid by any other name . . . or even
a rose . . .
Until now Texas was thought of as the home of oil, longhorns (of the
football and four legged variety), great Tex Mex food and hail as large
as the wallets of some oilionaires. This handsome, informative, well written
and solidly produced book which describes 54 orchids should change that.
In the future Texas should also be thought off as the home of the beautiful
Grass Pink, attractive Twayblade and pretty Ladies Tresses (not of the
kind on the Dallas Cowboys' cheerleaders) and a book the does them justice.
_ Joseph Arditti, Department of Developmental and Cell Biology, University
of California, Irvine, CA 92604-2834.
Updated Positions Available Listings
At BSA Website
Current position announcements are maintained on the Botanical Society's
website Announcement page at URL http://www.botany.org/bsa/announce/index.html.
Please check that location for announcement which have appeared since this
issue of Plant Science Bulletin went to press. To post an announcement,
contact the webmaster: <srussell@ou.edu>.
Books Received
If you would like to review a book or books for PSB, contact the Editor,
stating the book of interest and the date by which it would be reviewed
(15 February, 15 May, 15 August or 15 November of the appropriate year).
Send e-mail to <sundberm@emporia.edu>, call or write as soon as you
notice the book of interest in this list, because they go quickly!Ed.
* = book in review or declined for review
** = book reviewed in this issue
the Linnaean Dissertations together with a Synoptic Bibliography
of the Dissertations and a Concordance for Selected Editions. Kiger,
Robert W., Charlotte A. Tancin, and Gavin D.R. Bridson. 1999. ISBN 0-913196-67-3.
(cloth US$40.00) 299 pp. Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation. 5000
Forbes Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15213-3890.
Inducible Gene Expression in Plants. Reynolds, P.H.S., ed. 1999.
ISBN: 0-95199-259-5. (cloth US$85.00) 247 pp. CABI Publishing. 10 E. 40th
Street, Suite 3202, New York, NY 10016.
Mineral Nutrition of Crops: Fundamental Mechanisms and Implications.
Rengel, Zdenko ed. 1999. ISBN 1-56022-880-6. (cloth US$125.00) 399 pp.
Food Products Press, 10 Alice Street, Binghamton, NY 13904-1580.
Myxomycetes: A Handbook of Slime Molds. Stephenson, Steven L.
and Henry Stempen. 2000. ISBN 0-88192-439-3. (paper US$19.95) 200 pp. Timber
Press. 133 S.W. Second Ave., Suite 450, Portland, OR 97204-3527.
Penstemons. Nold, Robert. 1999. ISBN 0-88192-429-6. (cloth US$29.95)
259 pp. Timber Press, 133 S.W. Second Ane., Suite 450, Portland, OR 97204.
Plant Breeding Reviews, Vol 17. Janick, Jules, ed. 2000. ISBN
0-471-33373-5, ISSN 0730-2207. (cloth US$180.00) 338 pp. John Wiley &
Sons, Inc. 605 Third Ave., New York, NY 10158.
Plant Nutrition - Molecular Biology and Genetics: Proceedings of
the Sixth International Symposium on Genetics and Molecular Biology of
Plant Nutrition. Gissel-Nielsen, G. and A. Jensen, eds. 1999. ISBN:
0-792-35716-7. (cloth US$210) 444 pp. Kluwer Academic Publishers, 101 Philip
Drive, Assinippi Park, Norwell, MA 02061.
Plant Secondary Metabolism. Seigler, David S. 1998. ISBN: 0-412-01981-7.
(cloth US$460) 759 pp. Kluwer Academic Publishers, 101 Philip Drive, Assinippi
Park, Norwell, MA 02061.
Rangeland Desertification. Arnalds, Olafur and Steve Archer.
2000. ISBN 0-7923-6071-0 (cloth US$95.50) 209 pp. Kluwer Academic Publishers,
101 Philip Drive, Assinippi Park, Norwell, MA 02061.
Catalogue of Portraits of Naturalists, Mostly Botanists, in the Collections
of the Hunt Institute , The Linnean Society of London, and the Conservatoire
et Jardin Botaniques de la Ville de Genèvem. Part 3. Portraits of
Individuals. E-H. Karge Anita L., Sharon Tomasic, Margot Walker, Gavin
D.R. Bridson, Hervé M. Burdet, Marie-Martine Chautems and Tina Moruzzi-Bayo
(compilers). 1999. ISBN 0-913196-50-9. (paper US$20.00) 230pp. Hunt Institute
for Botanical Documentation. 5000 Forbes Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15213-3890.
The Fertile Triangle: The Interrelationship of Air, Water, and Nutrients
in Maximizing Soil Productivity. Wolf, Benjamin. 1999. ISBN 1-56022-878-4.
(cloth, US$69.95) 463 pp. Food Products Press, 10 Alice Street, Binghamton,
NY 13904-1580.
Forage Seed Production, Vol 2: Tropical and Subtropical Species.
Loch, D.S. and Ferguson, J.E., eds. 1999. ISBN 0-85199-191-2. (cloth US$160)
479 pp. CABI Publishing. 10 E. 40th Street, Suite 3202, New
York, NY 10016.
Halophyte Used in Different Climates I. Ecological and Ecophysiological
Studies. Lieth, H. et al., eds. 1999. ISBN 90-5782-038-2. (paper US$75.00)
258 pp. Backhuys Publishers B.V., P.O. Box 321, 2300 AH Leiden, The Netherlands.
Halophyte Used in Different Climates II. Halophyte Crop Development:
Pilot Studies. Hamdy, A., et al., eds. 1999. ISBN 90-5782-025-0. (paper
US$42.50) 144 pp. Backhuys Publishers B.V., P.O. Box 321, 2300 AH Leiden,
The Netherlands.
Heterosis and Hybrid Seed Production in Agronomic Crops. Basra,
Amarjit S., ed. 1999. ISBN 1-56022-876-8. (cloth US$79.95) 269 pp. Food
Products Press, 10 Alice Street, Binghamton, NY 13904-1580.
Index to Scientific Names of Organisms Cited in
The Sedges (Carex L.) Of Russia and Adjacent States (Within
the Limits of the Former USSR). Egorova, T.V. 1999. ISBN 0-915279-67-3.
(cloth US$49.95) 772 pp. Missouri Botanical Garden Press, 4344 Shaw Boulevard,
St. Louis, MO 63110.
Seed Germination: A Guide to the Early Stages. 1999. ISBN 90-5782-040-4.
(paper US$40.00) 158 pp. Backhuys Publishers B.V., P.O. Box 321, 2300 AH
Leiden, The Netherlands.
Seed Proteins. Shewry, Peter R. and Rod Casey, eds. 1999. ISBN
0-412-81570-2. (cloth US$540) 883 pp. Kluwer Academic Publishers, 101 Philip
Drive, Assinippi Park, Norwell, MA 02061.
Stratospheric Ozone Depletion: the Effects of Enhanced UV-B Radiation
on Terrestrial Ecosystems. Rozema, Jelte. 1999. ISBN90-5782-047-1.
(hard US$100.00) 344 pp. Backhuys Publishers B.V., P.O. Box 321, 2300 AH
Leiden, The Netherlands.

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