The work contains hundreds of biographical sketches -- I did not wish to count them and found no reference to the number -- of naturalists and authors involved in collecting
and writing about the plants of Madagascar and the Comoro Islands.
Biographical information, bibliographic and biographical references,
itineraries, collection data, institutional affiliation, in addition
to frequent anecdotes, are included for the more famous or prolific
collectors. Regrettably less information is available for most
of the Malagasy collectors. This is of course not always the
case, and the increased activity of the current, enthusiastic
and eager group of Malagasy naturalists will result in greater
notation of their efforts.
My attention was first drawn to those contemporaries that I know or work with, each sketch delivering some new bit of information or prompting a question to be asked. Next came a random search for those names one sees almost daily but rarely at a time when curiosity can be satisfied. How old was Henri Humbert when he died? Over 80. I once read a note he penned and left in a bottle at the summit of Marojejy. How did Ferdinand Renauld get the wealth of collections for his bryophyte flora of Madagascar? Seems more from correspondents than collecting. And why did David Lorence leave the dairy farm in Wisconsin for islands of the Indian Ocean - a question only presented, not answered.
The book is full of interesting notes and details. I have scanned only a relatively few entries, attracted more by an interesting profile than a name, but each provided a glimpse into a time filled with discovery and exploration, a time now more romantic than politically correct. Capt. James Augustus Grant writes of an expedition to the source of the Nile, when "many a pleasant hour might be spent in collecting plants and seeds while traversing the country to be explored" Dorr's use of quotation and anecdote allows brief escapes to the realms of Prince Roland-Napoléon Bonaparte or Capt. John Speke. The impatient ringing phone or beeping e-mail drags one back to the reality of Fanja Rasoavimbahoaka or Jeannie Raharimampionana struggling to study, document, and preserve the remaining biodiversity.
The work also contains an unusual collection of literature used in the text as biographical references, a list of the national parks and reserves along with a map of their locations, and chapter photographs by Andrew McRobb that capture, for me, the feel of Madagascar. The captions for these photographs are at the end of the Illustration credits, p. xiv. A CD read-only version of the book was included with the copy I received. The CD comes with program to view the information in the same format as the book. I did not try the search option that was also provided, however did try, without problems, to view several pages.
Some will quibble about the format, presentation,
or somewhat dated photographs - although I noted Larry's
seemed more recent -- but I find the work an entertaining,
informative, and useful reference. This is not a publication
for everyone's shelf, but a must for anyone interested
in plant collecting in Africa. Plant Collectors in Madagascar
and the Comoro Islands is surely a necessary reference for
university and museum libraries because of the wide scope of the
research of many of the characters presented, and an important
resource for natural history historians. - Robert Magill, Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis
Protologues in seed catalogues from Botanic Garden Copenhagen 1843-1875. Hansen, Bertel, Kai Larsen, & Sven-Erik Sandermann Olsen. 1997. (paper DKK90.00) 53 pp. The Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters, Biologiske Skrifter 47. Available from Munksgaard Export and Subscription Service, Nørre Søgade 35, DK-1370, Copenhagen K, Denmark.
Evidently, the Index Seminum Hauniense (ISH)
was no exception to these generalizations. For these reasons,
the authors have gone through all the issues of ISH from 1843
through 1875, when the practice of publishing new species in the
annual catalog was discontinued in Copenhagen, and they have reprinted
each of the type descriptions and accompanying discussion (= protologue).
There are in all 81 of them, by my count.
This alone would be a significant contribution, because
not all years of ISH are available from IDC on microfiche, so
far as I can tell. But the authors have gone much farther: they
have searched out where each name was published or re-published.
Most of the names treated here do indeed stem from ISH, but there
are some which were published elsewhere before they appeared
in ISH. Sometimes, when the name was re-published the author
gave supplemental data or characters not mentioned in the protologue.
And then the authors have taken the critical last
step, of searching through the Phanerogam Herbarium of the Botanical
Museum, Copenhagen, for type material. We are told in the introduction
that they failed to find relevant material in 12 instances, which
will serve to alert the monographer to the necessity of neotypifying
some taxa. Quite properly, the authors forbore to do that themselves.
(The authors have even gone to the trouble to point out where
the characters of the presumed type are at variance with the protologue.)
This is a valuable piece of scholarship, graced by
the addition of 9 plates at the back (4 in full color). The series
of which this is volume 47 covers everything from crustaceans
to autism to pigeons; if available on your campus, it is going
to be shelved elsewhere than in the herbarium library -
buy an extra copy and keep it handy. - Neil A. Harriman, Biology Department, University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, Oshkosh, WI 54901.
Vascular Plants of Texas: A Comprehensive Checklist including Synonymy, Bibliography, and Index Jones, Stanley D., Joseph K. Wipff, and Paul M. Montgomery. 1997. ISBN 0-292-74044-1, (cloth US$55) 404 pp. University of Texas Press, P. O. Box 7819, Austin, TX 78713-7819. - This is the first synonymized checklist for the vascular plants of Texas to include an index of all taxa, all cultivated
crops and forages, and all the introduced ornamental perennial
vascular plants that are likely to persist in the state. As such,
it is extremely useful to plant taxonomists or any other professional
from the pure to the applied sciences as well as lay people that
deal with plants in Texas.
The goals of the authors in writing this checklist
are listed in the preface and include the following: (1) provide
an in-depth list of the vascular plants that are known to occur
in Texas, (2) provide the current classification and nomenclature
of these plants, and (3) make the nomenclature readily assessable
through the indexing of all names. Having used the checklist
in updating nomenclature for a regional flora and for a checklist
of a national park, I am satisfied that the checklist meets the
goals of the authors.
Because the checklist covers cultivated and introduced
as well as native plants, it is the most in-depth checklist available.
It contains information on 227 families, 1599 genera, 5812 species,
939 infraspecific taxa, and 117 hybrids. It also designates taxa
that are endangered or threatened and those that are listed as
federal noxious weeds. This makes the checklist more useful for
plant conservation workers. Cultivated names should be very useful
to those that work in agriculture as well as other disciplines.
In addition to comprehensive taxonomic information, the checklist
also contains an excellent bibliography of literature on Texas
plants.
The checklist is easy to use being alphabetical by
family, genus, species, and infraspecific taxa. Italics are used
in the index to indicate current classification and nomenclature.
This allows one to use the index efficiently when conducting
an alpha search on a name. The organization of the body of the
book is also excellent. It follows the basic format of the Kartesz
checklist for the USA, Greenland, and Canada which is highly user
friendly. The taxa in the checklist are first arranged by classes
according to Cronquist's system of classification and then
taxa are alphabetical as described previously. The Cronquist
system was chosen because it is taught in most plant taxonomy
classes and is followed in most new manuals including the Flora
of North America.
The only criticism that some might have is that common
names are not given in the checklist. The authors justify this
exclusion by pointing out that vernacular names are regional in
nature so that many plants have several common names. They also
point out that a singly common name may apply to several taxa.
They further allude to the need for international standardization
of common names. In regard to this, I would present the viewpoint
of the late Lloyd Shinners, "There is no magic which will
make it child's play to find out the names of so huge a
quantity of variable plants. No real familiarity with them can
be acquired without the use of technical terms. No worthwhile
list of them is possible without using scientific names. If you
wish something painless and effortless, the pursuit of botany
is not for you. Nature gives away few secrets of the lazy, and
none to the incompetent." I personally have no problem
with common names not being included and it should not be a problem
for the professionals for which this work was primarily written.
Lay people my wish to use common names when they first begin
their pursuit of botany but most often quickly adopt scientific
names once they understand the usefulness of them in terms of
standardization of names and in elucidating taxonomic relationships.
- Allan Nelson, Tarleton State University, Stephenville, TX.
John Wurdack Festschrift. BioLlania, Edici-n Especial No. 6. Dorr, L. J. and B. Stergios, eds. 1997. ISBN 980-231-131-6 (paperback, US$10.00). i-xi + 571 pp. Universidad Nacional Experimental de Los Llanos Occidentales, Venezuela; orders to L. J. Dorr, Department of Botany, MRC-166, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. 20560.
The editors have done a fine job in pulling together
48 contributions, which are by no means limited to Melastomataceae;
also present are studies on Acanthaceae, Asteraceae, Bonnetiaceae,
But a Festschrift is an occasion to publish many
other works of history and appreciation that might otherwise never
appear in print, and this volume richly avails itself of that
opportunity. Under "Tributes and Reminiscences,"
there appear eight papers that piece together the personal and
professional history of this fine gentleman. They make great
reading, because the authors took a conversational approach and
spoke to the reader so clearly from the heart.
Scattered through the work are photographs of John
Wurdack from his family's archives and elsewhere. They
convey the spirit and essence of the young boy and the mature
scholar. In the earliest picture, p. 152, he looks to be about
6 months old and is clearly not all that pleased with the proceedings;
in the last picture, with which the volume concludes, p. 573,
he looks straight ahead at the camera, as though to say, "Can
we get this over with so I can get back to my melastomes?"
I suspect he wanted to take off his necktie and unbutton his
collar, too. The John Wurdack that I know in his more usual attire
is pictured on p. 34.
It is characteristic of the care with which this
volume was assembled and edited that there is a full-scale index
to the photographs, p. vi in the introductory portion of the volume.
For the convenience of the taxonomic bibliographer, there is
a complete, 3-page list of the nomenclatural innovations published
in this volume; it must have given Dr. Wurdack great pleasure
to see 16 more epithets honoring him. All of these are of course
included in the paper, "Plant taxa named for John J. Wurdack,"
pp. 133-142, which lists almost 150 instances of Wurdackian eponymy.
I congratulate the authors and the editors for this beautifully wrought tribute to a fine gentleman and scholar. - Neil A. Harriman, Biology Department, University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, Oshkosh, Wisconsin 54901.
Bromeliaceae, Caesalpiniaceae, Clusiaceae, Dichapetalaceae, Gesneriaceae,
Hydrophyllaceae, Orchidaceae, Passifloraceae, Poaceae, Polygalaceae,
Rosaceae, Rubiaceae, and Sapindaceae. Some of these are quite
brief, others are sub-monographic. In short, there is much solid
science of interest to the plant taxonomist and to the plant geographer.