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Volume 11, Number 4
October-November-December 1997
Nancy R. Morin and Judith M. Unger, Co-editors
FLORA OF NORTH AMERICA NEWS
The Flora of North America office has moved from the basement of the Administration Building—our home for about nine years—to the first floor of the new Monsanto Center at the Missouri Botanical Garden. We have graduated from frosted basement windows, where we could only tell if it was cloudy or sunny, to a south-facing wall of nothing but windows, with blinds to keep out too much sunlight. Come visit us in our new home. All of our phone numbers and our fax number have remained the same. The P.O. Box number is the same (299) as well as the zip code of 63166-0299, but our street address for package deliveries is 4500 Shaw Blvd. with a zip code of 63110.
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Dr. Gerald Bane Straley (1945-1997) On 11 December 1997, we lost a friend and colleague, Gerald B. Straley, following a long and courageous battle. His continual optimism during his illness was an inspiration to all who knew him. Gerald was a Regional Coordinator, member of the Editorial Committee, and author for the FNA project.
Gerald grew up on the family farm in Virginia and this undoubtedly initiated his great interest in nature. He completed his B.Sc. degree in Ornamental Horticulture at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and then went to Ohio University to study for his M.Sc. in Botany. In 1976, he came to do his Ph.D. on Arnica at the University of British Columbia under the guidance of Dr. Roy L. Taylor and then became Education Coordinator at VanDusen Botanical Display Garden, Vancouver, in late 1979. In 1982, Gerald returned to UBC as the Curator of Collections and Research Scientist at the Botanical Garden. In 1991, in addition to his position at the Botanical Garden, he was appointed as Director of the Herbarium in the Department of Botany at UBC. He himself collected over 9000 specimens between 1967 and 1997.
Gerald gave so much to the botanical and horticultural world through sharing his enthusiasm and knowledge. His significant accomplishments were many. Besides writing many articles and papers for journals, he co-authored Vascular Plants of British Columbia and Flora of the University of British Columbia Endowment Lands. Probably the publication he enjoyed writing most was his award-winning book, The Trees of Vancouver. He used to drive and walk in and around Vancouver taking copious notes on many trees during all seasons. During his illness, he was compiling notes for a second edition of this work.
In May 1997, he was delighted to be awarded the Significant Achievement Award for 1996 from Ohio University, granted to alumni who have distinguished themselves over a period of time. The citation stated that Gerald’s work as Director of the Herbarium at UBC and as a Regional Coordinator for the Flora of North America "represented the very best of what we hope for our graduates." He was renowned as one of North America’s most distinguished taxonomists, and as a leading authority on native B.C. and Canadian plants.
Gerald was a brilliant and respected teacher and had a special ability to relate to academics, students, and members of the gardening and nursery communities. Visitors, students, staff, and the Friends of the Garden learned so much from his fascinating and authoritative tours of the Garden. He showed us many plants that had so many stories about them. At the same time, he had a great interest in butterflies and moths, and was always showing them to people. He gave his personal collection of 20,000 butterflies to the Royal BC Museum in Victoria in the early 1990s. Undoubtedly his greatest love were the perennial and woody plants from Asia. Nothing would make him happier than being the first to tell us that the Magnolia campbellii cultivars were in flower!
He will be missed by so many who were privileged to know him. Not only will we miss his extensive knowledge of plants and nature, but we will greatly miss his special humor, warmth, and friendship. Thank you Gerald—we will miss you. A memorial fund has been set up in Gerald’s memory. Donations can be made to the UBC Botanical Garden, c/o Bruce Macdonald, Director, UBC Botanical Garden, 6804 Southwest Marine Drive, Vancouver, B.C. V6T 1Z4 Canada. A celebration of Gerald’s life will be held at the UBC Botanical Garden from 2 to 4 p.m. on Saturday, 31 January 1998. –Bruce Macdonald, UBC
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The annual meeting of the FNA Organization was held on Sunday 19 October and Monday 20 October at the Missouri Botanical Garden. Scott Peterson of the Natural Resources Conservation Service was welcomed as a new member of the FNA Organization. Topics discussed included: potential satellite centers to distribute the work for some large families; the legal incorporation of FNA and how that is connected with our fund raising; future staffing including the addition of new positions at the Organizational Center, refilling positions as people leave, and changing responsibilities of present staff positions; the FNA web site and further development of it along with related webmastering; regional review, its benefits and aspects needing improvement. The Bryophyte committee has added Sharon Bartholomew-Began, Paul Davison, and Lloyd Stark to their group (one additional person yet to be named); Bill Buck, John Engel, Marie Hicks, and Barb Murray have withdrawn from editorial roles in the project.
Barbara Thiers is the new chair of the Management Committee. She chaired the meeting on Friday 17 October. Bob Kiger and John McNeill are new members of the Management Committee; Dave Murray, George Argus, and Alan Smith have completed their terms. Recently Leila Shultz has been added as another new member of this committee.
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On Friday 5 December and Saturday 6 December, Mary Barkworth, Linda Vorobik, Rob Soreng, and Paul Peterson met with Rahmona Thompson and Jim Zarucchi to discuss cooperation between FNA Poaceae people and the Grass Manual Project. This group is developing strategies for collaboration that can benefit both projects and all authors and reviewers.
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The currently correct citation for Flora of North America as a whole is:
Flora of North America Editorial Committee, eds. 1993+. Flora of North America North of Mexico.
3+ vols. New York and Oxford.
Note that as further volumes are published, the volumation statement in a citation should be
incremented accordingly. Also note that the correct authorial attribution is "Flora of North America
Editorial Committee, eds." No personal name(s) should be cited! Within FNA itself, we don’t cite
the publisher, but in other contexts it may be desirable or necessary to do so, according to whatever
convention is relevant; e.g. "Oxford University Press: New York and London."
To cite a particular part of one of the volumes, use the following model:
Boufford, D. E. 1997. Fumaria. In: Flora of North America Editorial Committee, eds. 1993+. Flora of North America North of Mexico. 3+ vols. New York and Oxford. Vol. 3, pp. 356-357.
To cite a particular part of a volume that has not yet gone to press, use the following model:
Haynes, R. R. and C. B. Hellquist. In prep. Potamogetonaceae. For: Flora of North America Editorial Committee, eds. 1993+. Flora of North America North of Mexico. 3+ vols. New York and Oxford. Vol. 22.
--Bob Kiger, FNA Bibliographic Editor, Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation
Manuscripts Received From 1 October Through 31 December 1997
Volume 4
Ken Heil and Mark Porter - Sclerocactus (Cactaceae)
Mark Nienaber - Geocarpon (Aizoaceae)
Volume 8
Anita Cholewa - Anagallis, Glaux, Holtonia, Samolus, Trientalis, Lysimachia
Volume 9
Genevieve Kline and Paul Sorenson - Agrimonia (Rosaceae)
Alice Long Heikens - Neviusia (Rosaceae)
Joseph Rohrer - Geum (Rosaceae)
Volume 12
Geoffrey Levin - Acalypha, Drypetes (Euphorbiaceae)
Volumes 19-21
Robert Dorn - Yermo (Asteraceae)
Sharon Yarborough and Mike Powell - Pericome, Perityle, Flaveria (Asteraceae)
COMPUTER NEWS
In addition to checking the FNA web site, www.fna.org, for information related to the project, you might also check out these other sites of botanical information suggested by some staff and committee members.
Internet Directory for Botany: ttp://www.biol.uregina.ca/liu/bio/idb.shtml By subject http://www.helsinki.fi/kmus/botmenu.html, alphabetical listing http://herb.biol.uregina. ca/liu/bio/botany.shtml. There is a "what is new" section for both the subject and alphabetical pages. The Flora of China's data-source page may be useful: http://flora.harvard.edu/china/mss/data.htm
The address for the Hunt Institute's web site is: http://huntbot.andrew.cmu.edu with links to a number of other botanical sites. Rocky Mountain Herbarium Web site: http://www. rmh.uwyo.edu and Department of Botany, University of Wyoming web site is: http://www.uwyo.edu/a&s/bot/index.htm
Five general references: Gray Herbarium Card Index: http://www.herbaria.harvard. edu/Data/Gray/gray.html Index Herbariorum: http://www.nybg.org/bsci /ih/ih.html Index Nominum Genericorum: http://www.nmnh.si.edu/ing/ International Code of Botanical Nomenclature: http://www.bgbm.fu-berlin.de/iapt/ nomenclature/code/tokyo-e/ USGS Geographic Names Information System (valuable for finding accurate elevations and obscure localities) http://www-nmd.usgs. gov/www/gnis/gnisform.html
Homepages for three important societies: American Bryological and Lichenological Society: http://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/ bryolab/ABLS.html American Society of Plant Taxonomists: http://www.csdl.tamu. edu/FLORA/aspt/aspthome.htm Botanical Society of America: http://www.botany.org
Two collections of online resources: Biodiversity and Biological Collections Web Server (a good list of links to other useful sites): http://www.keil.ukans.edu/ Plant Taxonomists Online (A pretty thorough directory of systematists: http://biology.unm. edu/~herb/herblinks.html#section3
Two U.S. government sites with a lot of national data on plants: National Strategy to Combat the Spread of Non-Native Invasive Plants (Information on weeds) http:// bluegoose.arw.r.ws.gov/ficmnewfiles/NatlweedStrategytoc.html USDA PLANTS database (state distributions and other data): http://plants.usda.gov/plants/ plntmenu.html
Some state and provincial floristic databases: Arkansas (accessible by county only, based on Smith’s published atlas, not directly on specimen data): http://www.csdl. tamu.edu/FLORA/arkansas/arkfamxx.htm California flora database (county distributions and other data): http:// s27w007.pswfs.gov/calflora/ Colorado (distribution lists, accessible by county only, not by plant name): http://www.colorado.edu/CUMUSEUM/research/botany/botany.html Florida: Atlas of Florida vascular plants (project home page, county distributions): http://www.usf.edu /~isb/index.html or http://www.usf.edu/ ~isb/projects/atlas/ mapindex.html Oregon: Oregon State Univ. home page (Flora newsletter): http://www. orst.edu/dept/ botany/herbarium Saskatchewan (data from the University of Regina Herbarium): http://herb.biol.uregina. ca/herb/
NEWS FROM HERBARIA
Ownership of the Pomona College Herbarium was formally transferred to Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden, effective June 1996. As in the past, any requests for specimens on loan will automatically include any RSA and POM material available, including types when specified. Recognizing the importance of maintaining historic continuity with POM specimens cited in past botanical literature, we have opted to retain POM accession stamps and numbers. However, no additional specimens will be added to the collection under the POM accession number sequence. Workers are requested to continue citing POM for specimens belonging to the historic Pomona College collection.
We strongly encourage workers in all groups of vascular plants to consider our holdings when requesting loans, especially those working in plants of California and adjacent regions of southwestern North America. –Steve Boyd, RSA
PUBLICATIONS
Illustrated Companion to Gleason and Cronquist’s Manual, edited by Noel H. Holmgren and collaborators – The veracity of the adage "a picture is worth a thousand words" is probably never better borne out than when it comes to well-prepared botanical illustrations. No matter how detailed and thoughtfully rendered written descriptions of plant species may be, there is no substitute for a good line drawing to confirm or reject a plant identification. An illustration is the next best thing to having an herbarium at hand for comparison. Even professional botanists rely on illustrations to confirm their conclusions reached initially through the use of technical keys.
Four years in the making, the Illustrated Companion to Gleason and Cronquist’s Manual is based on the original artwork of the New Britton and Brown Illustrated Flora of the Northeastern United States and Adjacent Canada, published in 1952. But the new book is much more than a reprint, it has been completely restructured and enhanced to include new illustrations of several species not treated in earlier work as well as many useful diagnostic details previously omitted from the old illustrations.
827 plates containing meticulously rendered botanical illustrations especially arranged and labeled to cross-reference with the second edition of Gleason and Cronquist’s Manual of Vascular Plants of Northeastern United States and Adjacent Canada. ISBN 0-89327-399-6. Hardcover. $125. New York Botanical Garden, Bronx, NY 10458. Tel: 718/817-8721; fax: 718/817-8842; email: scipubs@nybg.org
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The American Association of Botanical Gardens and Arboreta (AABGA) has published the Directory of Gardens in North America. More than 300 gardens are arranged by state and province and listed with all the information necessary to plan a quick trip: location, telephone number, size, admission fee, and type of garden. The guide is small enough to fit in a glove box, purse, or back pocket for quick reference on the road or on vacation. Copies of the Directory of Gardens in North America are available for $4.95 each, with discounts for 10 or more copies. Send request and check payable to AABGA to: Garden Directory, AABGA, 351 Longwood Road, Kennett Square, PA 19348, or call 610/925-2500.
FUNDING
Honoring the memory of Dr. George H. M. Lawrence, founding director of the Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation, the Lawrence Memorial Award ($1000) is given biennially to support travel for doctoral dissertation research in systematic botany or horticulture, or the history of the plant sciences, including literature and exploration. The Award Committee of the Lawrence Memorial Fund invites nominations for the 1998 L awrence Memorial Award.
Major professors are urged to nominate outstanding doctoral students who have achieved official candidacy for their degrees and will be conducting pertinent dissertation research that would benefit significantly from travel enabled by the Award. The Committee will not entertain direct applications. A student who wishes to be considered should arrange for nomination by his/her major professor. This may take the form of a letter which covers supporting material prepared by the nominee.
Supporting materials should describe briefly but clearly the candidate’s program of research and how it would be significantly enhanced by travel that the Award would support. Letters of nomination and supporting materials, including seconding letters, should be received by the Committee no later than 1 May 1998 and should be directed to: Dr. R. W. Kiger, Hunt Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, 5000 Forbes Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15213-3890 USA Tel: 412/268-2434
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The Crater Lake Natural History Association has $1500 available for research projects that pertain to Crater Lake National Park for the 1998 field season. For information and application forms please contact: The Crater Lake Natural History Association, Box 7, Crater Lake, OR 97604 Ph: 541/ 594-2211 ext 499; email: CRLA_NHA@nps.gov or contact Kent Taylor, Chief of Interpretation via email at KENT_TAYLOR@nps.gov
OBITUARIES
Frans Antonie Stafleu of Utrecht, Netherlands, and Richard Sumner Cowan of East Cannington, Western Australia, both born in 1921, died recently. Dick died of heart failure on 17 November 1997 and Frans died of a combination of cancer and Alzheimer's disease on 16 December 1997. They are indissolubly linked by their joint production of one of the most valuable bibliographic research tools in biology, their Taxonomic Literature, ed. 2 (1976–1988), known as TL-2. The seeds for this cooperative effort were planted in the 1960s when Dick, having taken over the International Association for Plant Taxonomy's Regional Treasurer position from Reed Rollins, was successful in getting National Science Foundation support for another work, Index Nominum Genericorum (1979), known as ING, vital in shifting accumulating data from cards to a database and funding a team at the Smithsonian.
Obituaries of each, with their publications, are scheduled for the first two 1998 issues of Taxon. In the meantime, it suffices to note that Frans, known for his leading role in the International Association for Plant Taxonomy from its inception in 1950, was Professor of Plant Systematics at Utrecht University from 1966 to 1971, when this became Bijzonder Leerstoel (Extraordinary Chair), until his official retirement in 1986. Dick, known for his work with neotropical Caesalpinioids, was Director of the National Museum of Natural History at the Smithsonian Institution from 1965 to 1972 and then Senior Botanist until he retired to Australia in 1985. You might also remember Dick as one of the founders of FNA and President of the American Society of Plant Taxonomists (1970). Vos salutamus. Ave atque vale! --Dan H. Nicolson, NMNH, Smithsonian Institution
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Lauramay Tinsley Dempster died at home on 14 November 1997. Born in El Paso, Texas on 11 May 1909, she was the daughter of fiction writer Lucy Tinsley and telescope company founder Clayton Tinsley. She spent her childhood in Oakland, San Francisco, and Berkeley, where she developed an early passion for botany. At the insistence of her grandmother, who said "this child must have a college education," she attended the University of California and graduated at age 20, going on to earn her Masters in Botany under Willis Linn Jepson. During this period she met her future husband, Everett R. Dempster, who later became chairman of the Genetics Department at UC Berkeley. After marriage and raising her family, Lauramay worked for Jepson for a short time. When the Jepson Herbarium was established in 1950, Lauramay was hired as assistant to the first Curator, Dr. Rimo Bacigalupi. With his urging she first began working on Galium.
Lauramay was the author of several botanical treatments for the The Jepson Manual. In addition to Rubiaceae, she wrote treatments of Apocynaceae, Caprifoliaceae, and Lewisia as well as most of Valerianaceae and Convolvulaceae. She was considered the world authority on New World species of Galium (Rubiaceae), and began a treatment of that genus for the FNA about two years ago. Before she died, she had finished a rough draft.
In addition to her professional life, she was an active amateur musician (oboe), avid gardener, accomplished graphic artist, and offbeat world traveler. A biographical sketch appeared in The Jepson Globe, Volume 2, Number 4, 1989. Her extensive notebooks on the botany and natural history of her many travels will be housed in the Jepson Herbarium Library. -- Alan R. Smith and Susan D'Alcamo, UC and Jepson Herbaria.
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Raymond H. Hollensen died 25 October 1997 at age 65. Ray received his B.A. in History from Capital University, Columbus, OH in 1953. He served in the U.S. Army from 1954 to 1956, earned his M.S. degree in Botany at the University of Michigan in 1958, and took his Ph.D. in Botany from the University of Cincinnati in 1962. He was a doctoral student of Margaret Fulford, specializing in bryophyte morphology. From 1961 to 1965 he taught at Keuka College, Keuka Park, NY. In 1965 he joined Michigan State University's faculty in the Department of Natural Science. He was curator of cryptogams at MSC and was preparing the treatment of the liverwort genus Blepharostoma for the Flora of North America. Ray is survived by his wife and three children, one of whom, Dr. Kathleen Kron, is a botanist at Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, NC and an FNA author for some genera in Ericaceae. –Ray Stotler, SIU Carbondale, IL
MEETINGS
XVI International Botanical Congress will meet 1–7 August 1999 at America's Center in St. Louis, Missouri. A nomenclature meeting will be held the week before, 26–30 July 1999, at the Missouri Botanical Garden. The International Botanical Congress (IBC) is a convention of scientists from around the world which meets once every six years to discuss new research in all the plant sciences. The early registration fee, not including hotel, will be $300 ($200 for registrants from developing countries) and students pay a reduced fee of $100. There are some fellowships for travel to IBC available, with applications particularly encouraged from registrants from developing countries and from graduate students and recent graduates. The conference will also have space for commercial and scientific exhibits. For more information or a registration form, please consult the website at: http://www. ibc99.org or contact: Secretary General, XVI IBC c/o Missouri Botanical Garden, P.O. Box 299, St. Louis, MO 63166-0299 Tel: 314/577-5175, fax: 314/577-9589, e-mail: ibc16@mobot.org. Receptions, field trips, excursions, and other social events are planned prior to, during, and after IBC.
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Call for papers on floristics, plant conservation research, and research using living collections in botanical gardens and arboreta, for presentation at the Annual Meeting of the American Institute of Biological Sciences, 2–6 August 1998, in Baltimore, Maryland. The American Association of Botanical Gardens and Arboreta, now a member of AIBS, will sponsor talks on subjects of interest to the botanical and biological community. Excellent local and regional floristic work is underway in America but rarely reported on at national meetings and conservation-related research often falls outside traditional categories at meetings. In addition, a fascinating array of research is being done in botanical gardens and arboreta that is of interest to scientists.
To contribute a 15-minute paper, send the title of your talk, your name, institution, address, telephone number, and a 250-word abstract to AABGA, 351 Longwood Road, Kennett Square, PA 19348 no later than 15 March 1998. Indicate if you will need registration materials (if you are a member of BSA, ASPT, AIBS, AFS, or some other society you will receive materials from them automatically).
POSITIONS AVAILABLE
The Research Division at Missouri Botanical Garden has available the position of Scientific Editor in the Scientific Publications Department. As head of the scientific publications department, the selected individual will oversee all aspects of scientific editing and review of the Annals, Novon, the Monographs series; perform initial manuscript consideration, initiate review process, acceptance/rejection of manuscripts; participate in editing, revision, formatting, and final publication; explore new technologies of publication; and work with an editorial committee.
Qualifications include a Ph.D. in botany or related field, with strong knowledge in botany, taxonomy, and nomenclature, and 5 years related experience. Requirements include familiarity with the publishing process; botanical literature and library facilities; sensitivity to deadlines; knowledge about the botanical community and current publications; and ability to select appropriate reviewers for books and journal manuscripts. Ability to read Spanish strongly desired. Position is open immediately. Review of applications begins immediately and will be accepted until position is filled. To apply, please submit curriculum vitae, along with names and phone numbers of three references, to Missouri Botanical Garden, Human Resource Management, P.O. Box 299, St. Louis, Missouri, 63166-0299. E-mail: rland@admin.mobot.org.
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The California Academy of Sciences announces an internship program in Systematic Biology for summer 1998. The Summer Systematics Institute matches 9 undergraduate students with Academy scientists to conduct research, as well as participate in tours, seminars and lectures related to biodiversity, evolutionary biology and global change. A $3000 stipend will be awarded to each intern. Financial help may be available to defray travel costs to San Francisco. This National Science Foundation funded internship is open to U.S. citizens currently enrolled as undergraduates (graduating seniors are not eligible) and have a background in natural science.
The 1998 Summer Systematics Institute will last 10 weeks: 15 June 1998 - 21 August 1998. All application materials must be received by 13 March 1998. No late applications can be considered. Notification of status will be mailed to all applicants by 3 April 1998. Application materials can be obtained from: Summer Systematics Institute Research Division California Academy of Sciences Golden Gate Park San Francisco, CA 94118. Complete application materials can also be found at: http://www.calacademy.org/research.
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