Preface

Volume 12 of the Flora of China is the 14th of a 25-volume work. It includes 18 families, 125 genera, and 1275 species, among which five genera and 767 species (60%) are endemic to China, and eight genera and 29 species (2.3%) are introduced to China.

Volume 12 is formatted in the same manner as the first 13 volumes of the series: vol. 17 (1994), vol. 16 (1995), vol. 15 (1996), vol. 18 (1998), vol. 4 (1999), vol. 24 (2000), vol. 8 (2001), vol. 6 (2001), vol. 9 (2003), vol. 5 (2003), vol. 14 (2005), vol. 22 (2006), and vol. 13 (2007). The following 11 accompanying volumes of the Flora of China Illustrations have been published to date: vol. 17 (1998), vol. 16 (1999), vol. 15 (2000), vol. 18 (2000), vol. 4 (2001), vol. 24 (2002), vol. 8 (2003), vol. 6 (2003), vol. 9 (2004), vol. 5 (2004), and vol. 14 (2006); volume 22 is in production.

Bruce Bartholomew co-authored and edited the Pentaphylacaceae, Sladeniaceae, and Thea­ceae. Anthony R. Brach co-authored and edited the Sabiaceae and edited the Actinidiaceae, Bal­saminaceae, and Elaeocarpaceae. Anthony R. Brach and Nicholas J. Turland edited the Rham­naceae, Sapindaceae, and Vitaceae. Michael G. Gilbert co-authored and edited the Bombacaceae, Malvaceae, Sterculiaceae, and Tiliaceae. Nicholas J. Turland co-authored and edited the Hippo­castanaceae and edited the Dilleniaceae, Leeaceae, and Ochnaceae. Nicholas J. Turland checked the nomenclature. Lisa J. Pepper carried out the final editing of the whole volume. Zhang Libing (张丽兵) corrected errors and omissions in the Chinese and pinyin names. Han Xuezhe (韩学哲), Chelsey D. Hillyer, Beth Parada, Lisa J. Pepper, and Zeng Jianfei (曾建飞) proofread the volume. Lisa J. Pepper and Nicholas J. Turland compiled the indexes. Allison M. Brock helped with the production and proofreading of the introductory pages. Rosemary Tanaka typeset the volume for publication.

The 15th volume in the series (vol. 11) will contain 35 families, including the Aceraceae, Aquifoliaceae, Celastraceae, Euphorbiaceae, and Rutaceae.

Wu Zhengyi (吴征镒)

Peter H. Raven

Hong Deyuan (洪德元)