|
|
Plant Science Bulletin archiveIssue: 1996 v42 No 2 Summer
|
||||||||||||
| PLANT SCIENCE BULLETIN | ||
| Editorial Committee for Volume 42 | ||
| Robert E. Wyatt (1996) Institute of Ecology University of Georgia Athens GA 30602 |
James D. Mauseth (1997) |
Allison A. Snow (1998) |
| Nickolas M. Waser (1999) Dept. of Biology University of California Riverside CA 92521 |
P. Mick Richardson (2000) Missouri Botanical Garden P.O. Box 299 St. Louis MO 63166 |
|
Ecological Section Symposium 6 August 1996
A symposium entitled "Wild-Crop Hybridization and the Ecological Impact of Escaped Transgenes" will be sponsored by the Ecological Section oftheBotanical Society and the USDA.The symposium organizers are Dr. Allison Snow (Ohio State University) and Dr. Timothy Spira (Clemson University)
Overview: The purpose of this symposium is to bring together botanists who study wild-crop hybridization and the evolutionary ecology of weeds. Gene flow from crops to free-living relatives is an unexplored but potentially important mechanism by which weedy species can acquire beneficial traits. For many crop species, little is known about the ability to cross spontaneously with related taxa, but genetic markers such as allozymes and RAPDs can be used to provide unambiguous evidence for crop-wild gene flow and introgression. Recent studies suggest that transgenes will "escape" in a similar manner to other crop genes, thereby introducing traits such as strong resistance to disease, insects, frost damage, and herbicides into wild gene pools. A widely acknowledged risk associated with transgenic crops is the possibility that hybridization with weedy relatives (or naturalization of the crop itselt) will cause novel, fitness-related transgenes to result in the rapid evolution of more invasive weeds. Methods for addressing this issue and related topics will be discussed.
— Allison Snow Ohio State University
Economic Botany Section Symposium 5 August, 1996
The Economic Botany Section of the Botanical Society of America (BSA) will sponsor a symposium entitled "Economic Botany: Sus-tainable Development and Conservation of Botanical Resources" at this years AIBS meetings. The meetings will take place from August 4-8 in Seattle, Washington and the symposium will be help Monday afternoon, August 5. Speakers include:
Bennett, Bradley C. Sustainable use of Neotropical plant re-sources, what does it mean?
Barton, Elaine York and Todd L. Capson. Ethnobotany of the Gosiute Indians of the Great Basin.
Benz, Bruce F, F. Santana M., J. Cevallos E. and E. Munoz M. Conserving biological diversity through sustainable development in the Sierra de Manantlan Biosphere Reserve.
Kruckebberg, A. R. Rarity - cultivated plants and their wild progenitors.
Lentz, David and Hans T. Beck. Intellectual property rights: benefits and concerns for ethnobotany.
Marles, Robin J., Natalie Spence, Christine Clavelle, Donna Burns, and Leslie Monteleone. Boreal forest ethnobotany and sustainable development.
Turner, Nancy J. and Mary Thomas. Incorporating traditional knowledge into modem conservation programs: Examples from north-western North America.
The Economic Botany Section will also be sponsoring two addition-al events at AIBS that may be of interest to economic botanists. Monday evening August 5 at 8:00 pm, Dr. Hugh H. Iltis, from the University of Wisconsin, will present a special lecture entitled "New Wine in an Old Bottle: The Catastrophic Sexual Translocation Theory of the Origin of Maize." This is sure to be an exciting presentation on a most interesting topic.
On the following day, Tuesday, August 6, the Economic Botany Section business meeting will be held as a special luncheon. An election will be held to replace Torn Mione of Central Connecticut University, as president. Sir Ghillean Prance, Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, will present a lecture entitled "Economic Botany: The View from Kew" as part of the Section luncheon meeting.
—James S. Miller Missouri Botanical Garden
Pteridological Section
1994 Symposium Published
The Pteridological Section has announce the publication of Use of Molecular Data in Evolutionary Studies of Pteridophytes," Proceedings of a Symposium Held August 9. 1994, at the 45th Annual Meeting of The American Institute of Biological Sciences, Knoxville, Tennessee, in a special issue of the American Fern Journal (vol. 85, no. 4). The syposium was jointly sponsored by the American Fern Society and the Pteridological Section. The symposium organizer was Paul G. Wolf, Utah State University. The procccedings include the following articles:
Introduction Paul G. Wolf
Non-Molecular Phylogenetic Hypotheses for Ferns Alan R. Smith
DNA Sequence Data in Phylogeny Reconstruction: An Overview of Techniques and Analyses Tom A. Ranker
Fern Phylogeny Based on rbcL Nucleotide Sequences Mitsuyasu Hasebe, Paul G. Wolf, Kathleen M. Pryer, Kunihiko Ueda, Motomi Ito, Ryosuke Sano, Gerald J. Gastony, Jun Yokoyama, James R. Manhart, Noriaki Murakami, Edmund H. Crane, Christopher H. Haufler, and Warren D. Hauk
Chloroplast 16S rDNA Sequences and Phylogenetic Relationships of Fern Allies and Ferns James R. Manhart Insights into Fern Evolution from Mapping Chloroplast
Genomes Linda A. Raubeson and Diana B. Stein
32
Phylogenetic Relationships of Extant Pteridophytes Based on Evidence from Morphology and rbcL Sequences Kathleen M. Pryer, Alan R. Smith, and Judith E. Skog
Phylogeny of the Vittariaceae: Convergent Simplification Leads to a Polyphyletic Vittaria Edmund H. Crane, Donald R. Farrar, and Jonathan F. Wendel
Phylogenetic Analyses of rbcL and Nuclear Ribosomal RNA Gene Sequences in Dennstaedtiaceae Paul G. Wolf
The Relationships of Papuasian Cyatheaceae to New World Tree Ferns David S. Conant, Linda A. Raubeson, Deborah K. Attwood, and Diana B. Stein
Phylogeny and Generic Circumscriptions of Cheilanthoid Ferns (Pteridaceae: Cheilanthoideae) Inferred from rbcL Nucleotide Sequences Gerald J. Gastony and David R. Rollo
RbcL Sequences Provide Phylogenetic Insights among Sister Species of the Fern Genus Polypodium Christopher H. Haufler and Tom A. Ranker
A Molecular Assessment of Relationships among Cryptic Species of Botrychium Subgenus Botrychium (Ophioglossaceae) Warren D. Hauk
Individual copies of this 300+ page issue are available from the American Fern Society, Back Issues Curator, Ecology III, R.D. 1, Berwick PA 18603, for US$20.00 postpaid.
— George Yatskievych Missouri Botanical Garden
<left> </left>New Society formed for Mesoamerican Biology and Conservation
The Mesoamerican Society for Biology and Conservation was formed on 14 January 1996, at Lake Yojoa, Honduras, by a group of biologists from five countries and numerous branches of the biological sciences. The new society will serve biologists and conservationists throughout Central America and southern Mexico, by publishing a news bulletin Mesoamericana, and by sponsoring annual congresses in Mesoamerica. The official name is "Sociedad Mesoamericana para la Biologia y la Conservaciōn." Persons interested in the society, as members or potential officers, are invited to become founding members, subscribe to the bulletin, and attend the first general meeting of the membership in Tegucigalpa in June 1996. Institutions are also invited to help found the society, the first ever of its kind in Mesoamerica.
Members will receive the quarterly Mesoamericana, which will include news in Spanish and English of current projects, meetings, and literature, as well as biographical sketches on founding members, and short, non-technical articles of general use to biologists working in Mesoamerica. The Society initially intends to publish technical articles in proceedings of annual symposia or congresses. The first issue of Mesoamericana will be published in June 1996. For more information about the bulletin, contact its editor, Carlos Rene Ramirez Sosa, 4a. Avenida Sur #1, Apopa, San Salvador, El Salvador (Tel: (503) 336-0152; email: crrlc@cunyvm.cuny.edu).
The cost of basic membership is $20 for 1996 (includes 3 issues of Mesoamericana). One can become a founding member for $50. Institutions can become founders for $200, which includes a subscription to the bulletin. Founding members and founding institutions will be acknowledged in the bulletin. Founding member-ships will be available only through the end of 1996. Donations larger than $200 are welcome, and donors will be recognized in print as benefactors. Membership fees or other donations may be sent to Oliver Komar, Department of Zoology, Ohio Wesleyan University, Delaware OH 43015 (Telephone (614) 369-0175; email ookomar@cc.owu.edu). Checks should be made out to "Mesoamerican Society for Biology and Conservation" or "Sociedad Mesoamericana para la Biologia y la Conservacion."
Mesoamerican residents have lower member-ship costs, and can contact directly one of the acting secretaries, Silvia C. Chalukidn, at Departmento de Recursos Naturales y Conservaciōn Biolōgica, Escuela Agricola Panamericana, Apartado 93, Tegucigalpa, Honduras (Telephone (504) 76-6140; fax (504) 76-6234; email eapdrn@ns.hondunet.net or eaphpcs@ns.hondunet.net).
All members are encouraged to attend the first meeting at the Universidad Nacional Autōnoma de Honduras, Tegucigalpa, tentatively planned for 21-22 June 1996, at which the Society's membership will approve its statutes and elect a board of officers and trustees. The meeting includes a one-day symposium on Mesoamerican biology, with invited papers and an open poster session. Anyone interested in attending the meeting and symposium may contact the society's acting president Gerardo Borjas. Licenciado Borjas is the local organizing committee chair and scientific program chair for the June meeting. He may be reached at Apartado 30-357, Toncontin, Tegucigalpa M.D.C., Honduras (telephone! fax (504) 33-9576). Information on local lodging arrangements and registration also will be available from Oliver Komar at the address given below.
For more information, contact Oliver Komar, Department of Zoology, Ohio Wesleyan University, Delaware OH 43015. Telephone (614) 369-0175 Email ookomar@cc.owu.edu
— Oliver Komar, Ohio Wesleyan University
Other News
33
The Biodiversity Forum
The Biodiversity Forum is a new non-profit organization that seeks to advance the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity at the international level. The Biodiversity Forum is committed to encouraging cooperation among governments, international organizations, and the private sector in developing methods to advance this goal. The Forum consists of experts in biological science, international policy, and environmental law who closely monitor and participate in the activities of international fora related to biological diversity. Summaries and analysis of recent events in such fora are presented in a quarterly newsletter available at no charge. For more information visit The Biodiversity Forum web site at http://www.worldcorp.comlbiodiversity/ or write to: Jay Gruner, Executive Director, The Biodiversity Forum, 8000 Towers Crescent Drive, Suite 1350, Vienna, Va. 22182. Phone: (703) 847-3686 or Fax: (703) 760-7899.
— David Zippin, The University of Texas
Green Plant Phylogeny Research Coordination Group (GPPRCG) Announces World Wide Web Site
The Green Plant Phylogeny Research Coordination Group (GPPRCG) is pleased to announce a World Wide Web site at: http://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/bryolab/greenplantpage.html
This website will provide the framework from which the GPPRCG will keep the scientific community informed of its mission, upcoming meetings and events, related websites, and most important, data matrices of interest to anyone concerned with research involving the phylogenetic relationships of green plants. It will continue to be under construction, so stop in frequently to check progress and contribute your own information.
The GPPRCG, set up in September 1994, is sponsored by a grant from the DOE/NSF/USDA Joint Program on Collaborative Research in Plant Biology; the PIs are M.A. Buchheim, University of Tulsa, R. L. Chapman, Louisiana State University, and B.D. Mishler, University of California at Berkeley. The aim of the group is to initiate and facilitate interaction among independent research groups worldwide that are interested in green plant phylogeny. This initiative is based on the insight that further progress in this area of research could greatly benefit from a major collaborative effort to coordinate data collection by establishing exemplars (selected key taxa) and suggesting characters to be studied foreach. Therefore, the specific objectives of the GPPRCG are: 1) coordinate data gathering, addressing both taxon and character sampling, 2) establish and manage morphological, molecular, and other relevant data bases, which will be made available to researchers, teachers, and students, 3) stimulate creative approaches to investigating green plant phylogeny , including novel approaches to data analysis and the handling of large data sets, and 4) encourage collaborative research.
Three GPPRCG workshops have already been held, with seven more scheduled through 1999. Each workshop has a different focus (the summary of the first workshop is currently posted on the website; the others will follow), and the meeting sites will alternate between major North American scientific conferences and other venues. Although the workshops themselves must re-main small because of budgetary and logistic constraints, wide participation in the GPPRCG and coordination of research activity can be achieved through the website. Data availability tables for exemplar taxa will soon pro-vide a readily accessible and up-to-date summary of the current knowledge of phylogenetically important plants. These tables will also highlight shortcomings or gaps in the data and thereby provide a guide to researchers.
The purpose of the GPPRCG is to encourage coordination of research activity, but not to direct it; therefore, the group will not allocate discreet tasks to individuals or labs, nor fund research projects All re-searchers interested in plant phylogeny are encouraged to participate freely and equally by contributing results to the data availability tables. Since only independently published data will end up in the final matrix, each investigator will get credit for his or her own research. Contributors to the matrix will be invited to participate in an edited publication that will attempt a complete and well-supported high-level phylogenetic analysis of green plants. This publication will take the form of a book which will include multiauthored chapters, along with the data matrix in electronic form (with all contributors acknowledged). This work is scheduled for completion in time for presentation at the 1999 International Botanical Congress in St. Louis. Interested individuals are encouraged to investigate the GPPRCG website and contact the PIs: M.A. Buchheim (Buchheimma @Centum.utulsa.edu), R.L. Chapman (BTRuss@unixl.sncc.lsu.edu), and B.D. Mishler (bmishler@garnet.berkeley.edu).
— Russell Chapman, Louisiana State University
Fossil Flora of Russia and Adjacent States: Two Volumes Available
Through the efforts of many prominant members of the paleobotanical community, a comprehensive survey of the fossil flora of Russia and adjacent states (2 volumes) has become available. These volumes present fossils from remains of leaves, fruits, seed, and wood, and describe over 40 genera in the Ulmaceae. Moraceae, Cannabaceae, Urticaceae, Fagaceae, and Betulaceae (Volume 2, A Takhtajan, ed.), as well as each of 133 species of the Leitneriaceae, Myricaceae, and Juglandaceae (Volume 3, Lev Budantsev, ed.). Both volumes are in Russian.
These volumes have become available through the efforts of David Ditcher (Florida Museum of Natural
34
<left>
</left>
History) and other members of the paleobotanical community. Professor Dilcher urges that the availability of these volumes be brought to the attention of libraries and researchers. These volumes can be obtained from Dilcher for US$98.00 each (plus shipping and handling, US$7 domestic, US$10 overseas), at Florida Museaum of Natural History, University of Florida, P.O. Box 117800, Gainesville FL 32611-7800. Telephone (352) 392-1721. Fax (352) 392-2539. E-mail: dilcher@flmnh.ufl.edu
<left>
</left>
Announcements
Funding Opportunities
Center for Field Research Invites Proposals for Field Grants
The Center for Field Research invites proposals for 1997 field grants awarded by its affiliate Earthwatch. Earthwatch is an international, non-profit organization dedicated to sponsoring research and promoting public education in the sciences and humanities. Information about Earthwatch field grants is available on The Center's World Wide Web site (http:llgaia.earthwatch.org/WW Wl cfr.html) or you can contact: Dr. Andy Hudson, Director, The Center for Field Research, 680 Mt. Auburn Street, Watertown. MA 02172. Telephone: (617) 926-8200 0 FAX: (617)926-8532oe-mail: ahudson@earthwatch.org or Sean Doolan, Science Officer, Earthwatch Europe, Belsyre Court. 57 Woodstock Road, Oxford OX2 6HU, United Kingdom. Telephone: (865) 311 600 o FAX: (865) 311 383 o e-mail: ewoxford@vax.oxford.ac.uk.
Commentary
Botanists in Durango Need AJB
Editor:
I was sorry to see the BSA membership fee hike this year (although I well understand the need to raise fees), and I can no longer afford to maintain my member-ship, after more than 8 years in BSA. I very much enjoyed the benefits of BSA membership, but it now costs me more than 2 week's salary as a professor and research scientist at a third world university.
Nevertheless, your journal, American Journal of Botany, and bulletin, Plant Science Bulletin, have been great references for us, and we hope to be able to obtain used back issues of editions from this year and upcoming years. If any of your members would like to donate used copies ofAJB to our institution, I can assure you that they will be put to good use here. It is extremely difficult to ' obtain good quality botanical literature here in Durango, and we gladly accept any material we can obtain at relatively low cost.
— Jeffrey R. Bacon
Area de Ecologia Forestal
Universidad Juarez del Estado de Durango
Durango, Dgo, Mexico C.P. 34000
1997-98 Fulbright Awards for U.S. Faculty and Professionals
Oppportunities for lecturing or advanced research in over 135 countries are available to college and university faculty and professionals outside academe. U.S. citizenship and the Ph.D. or comparable professional qualifications required. For lecturing, university or college teaching experience is expected. Foreign language skills are needed for some countries, but most lecturing assignments are in English.
The deadline for lecturing or research grants for 1997-98 is August 1, 1996. Other deadlines are in place for special programs: distinguished Fulbright chairs in Western Europe and Canada (May 1) and Fulbright seminars for international education and academic administrators (November 1).
Contact the USIA Fulbright Senior Scholar Program, Council for International Exchange of Scholars, 3007 Tilden Street, N.W., Suite 5M, Box GNEWS, Washington, D.C. 20008-3009. Telephone: (202) 686-7877. Web Page (on-line materials): http:llwww.cies.orgl E-mail: ciesl@ciesnet.cies.org (requests for mailing of application material only).
<left>
</left>
35
Personalia
BSA Member Greenfield Honored for 50 years at Rutgers
Sydney S. Greenfield was honored at a festive dinner celebrating his fifty years of "outstanding teaching and contributions to Rutgers University" at Newark, on March 28, 1996. Although he retired in 1984, he has continued to teach one course on a voluntary basis as Professor Emeritus of Botany. Dr. Greenfield founded the botany department at the Newark Campus of Rutgers, and at its peak it had one of the largest undergraduate pro-grams in the United States, with 200 majors in botany.
He played a major role in the design of a new campus at Newark, its buildings, laboratories and green-houses, and landscaping with a great variety of trees and shrubs. He has been honored a number of times before for his exceptional service, and he has now endowed a graduate fellowship in botany at Rutgers-Newark.
A member of the Botanical Society of America since 1937, he was chairman of the Committee to Study the Role of Botany in American Colleges and Universities, which issued a very comprehensive report in 1952. As outcomes of this study, he was the principal founder of Plant Science Bulletin and of the Committee on Education of the BSA.
Ed. note: Dr. Greenfield was theauthor of "The Challange to Botanists," the very first article to appear in Plant Science Bulletin (vol 1, no. 1, January 1955).
Provo Shrub Lab Geneticist Wins Forest Service Distinguished Scientist Award
Dr. E. Durant McArthur, project leader at the Intermountain Research Station's Shrub Sciences Laboratory in Provo, Utah, was presented the USDA Forest Service's highest research award by Forest Service Chief Jack Ward Thomas in Washington, D.C. at a April 16, 1996 awards ceremony.
McArthur won the Distinguished Scientist Award for both his personal productivity in the science of genetics and evolution, and for his leadership of the research at the Forest Service laboratory located on the edge of the Brigham Young University campus. The team of researchers there are investigating shrubland ecosystems.
Since he began his Forest Service career 24 years ago, McArthur has averaged over 10 scientific publication per year. The diversity of scientific journals and other outlets that have published his research illustrates the broad range of his scientific accomplishments. Some research highlights include work on cytogeography, hybridization, and hybrid zones ofArtemisia and delineation of breeding systems of western North American shrub species. Some of the most important of McArthur's work is in restoring wildland productivity including big game winter range.
Dr. McArthur received an A.S. degree from Dixie College (1963) and hold B.S. (1965), M.S. (1967), and Ph.D. (1970, plant genetics) degrees from the University of Utah. He was a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Leeds in Agricultural Botany from 1970-1971. He has been adjunct professor of botany and range science at Brigham Young University since 1976. Dr. McArthur has been chair of the Shrub Research Consortium since 1983 and a key organizer of the ten wildland shrub symposia sponsored by the Consortium. He has been president of the Intermountain Consortium for Arid Land Research since its inception in 1991. Dr. McArthur has been a member of the Botanical Society of America since 1967.
Sherwin Carlquist Receives Lifetime Achievement Award
Dr. Sherwin Carlquist, internationally recognized for his many and continuing contributions to botany, in particular in the field of plant anatomy, was presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden. The award was presented at a banquet in conjunction with the Garden's Symposium on "Plant Evolution and Conservation on Islands - A Global Perspective."
Carlquist has devoted his career to the study of comparative anatomy and the evolution of conducting tissues in plants. He also pioneered the study of island floras and faunas by providing new insights into dispersal and reproductive biology. The Santa Barbara resident earned undergraduate and graduate degrees at the University of California, Berkeley, and he did postdoctoral study at Harvard University. He received three National Science Foundation fellowships during his graduate and postdoctoral years.
A member of the faculty at the Claremont Graduate School for more than 35 years, Carlquist served as professor of botany from 1961-92, and he was professor of biology at Pomona College during the same period. A plant anatomist at Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden from 1984-92, Carlquist participates in a course at UC Santa Barbara on his favorite subject, island biology.
His pioneering research has produced numerous awards, including the Gleason Prize of the New York Botanical Garden; career award from the Botanical Society of America; the Allerton Medal of the National Tropical Botanical Garden; and the A sa Gray Award from the American Society of Plant Taxonomists. In addition to his other accomplishments, The Botanic Garden honored Carlquist for his innovative leadership and mentoring through teaching and research to many students in the field of plant morphology and anatomy.
36
In Memoriam
NORMAN HILL BOKE 1913-1996
Longtime Botanical Society member and former Editor of the American Journal of Botany, Norman Hill Boke passed away in February 1996. Norman Boke received an undergraduate degree from the University of South Dakota (1934). He received his master's degree from the University of Oklahoma (1936) before going to the University of California at Berkeley for his Ph.D. in Botany (1939) under the supervision of AS. Foster.
Dr. Boke taught at the University of New Mexico and Johns Hopkins University before returning to the University of Oklahoma in 1945, where he spent the remainder of his career. His most noteworthy research contributions to the field of structural botany concerned the development and interpretation of the cactus gynoecium. He taught plant anatomy and vascular plant morphology at the University of Oklahoma. He was a clear and demanding teacher.
His contributions to botany were not only in structural botany, but also included the training of many students in the science and art of biological microscopy through his remarkably comprehensive course, "Optical Methods in Biology." Norman was also an excellent field botanist who enjoyed teaching a spring flora course at the University of Oklahoma and introducing many others to the flora of Mexico with which he was intimately familiar.
Norman Boke served as Editor-in-Chief of the American Journal of Botany 1970-1975. Dr. Boke received many honors including membership in Phi Beta Kappa and receipt of a Guggenheim Memorial Fellow-ship. The University of Oklahoma honored him by making him a George Lynn Cross Research Professor in 1965. Four plants have been named after Norman Boke, including Normanbokea pseudopectinata (Backeberg) Kladiwa et FR. Buxbaum comb. nov. Dr. Boke is survived by his wife and a daughter. — David D. Cass Department of Biological Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, and Scott Russell, Department of Botany, University of Oklahoma.
The Botanical Society has been notified that the following members have passed away:
Mildred E. Mathias of the Department of Biology, University of California, Los Angeles, a member since 1927.
Educational Opportunities
Workshop: Botany of Alpine New Mexico August 11-18, 1996
Spent primarily in the field, the workshop will focus on adaptations to physical factors and species interactions that are characteristic of alpine tundra, subalpine conifer forests and meadows. It carries one semester credit hour and is open to anyone interested in the natural history of the Southwest. SMU's Fort Burgwin, a reconstructed frontier cavalry fort, is an interdisciplinary re-search and teaching facility located at an elevation of 7,400 feet in the Sangre de Cristo Range above Taos, New Mexico. Cost of $570 includes tuition, housing, and fees. Instructor: Roger Sanders, SMU Adj. Prof. &Res. Assoc., Botanical Research Inst. Texas, Fort Worth. For more details and applications call (214) 768-3657.
Positions Available
Assistant Extension Citrus and Avocado Management Specialist and Assistant Plant Physiologist, University of California, Riverside
The Department of Botany and Plant Sciences, University of California, Riverside, announces a position available October 1, 1996. The position is an 11-month, academic career-track, Assistant Extension Specialist (70%) and Assistant Plant Physiologist (30%) appointment in the Agricultural Experiment Station. Applied and basic research on the horticulture of citrus and avocado with some emphasis on soil/water/rhizosphere management. The appointee is expected to provide leadership, coordination, and subject matter knowledge through state-wide research and education activities for the benefit of the California citrus and avocado industries. A Ph.D. degree in plant physiology or a closely related discipline is required. The position requires a broad knowledge of horticulture or one of the other plant sciences and expertise in one or more of the following areas: mineral nutritionlfertility management; irrigation management; root function and health; water and/or salinity stress; tree crops. Skills in oral, written, and visual communication are essential. Send letter of application, curriculum vitae, statement of research interest, and transcripts, and arrange to have at least three confidential letters of reference sent to: Dr. A. E. Hall, Chair, Department of Botany and Plant Sciences, University of California, Riverside, CA 92521-0124. (Phone: 909-787-4413; Fax: 909-787-4437; e-mail: susanm@ucracl.ucr.edu). The application dead-line is July 31, 1996. The University of California is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer.
37
Symposia, Conferences, Meetings
NAFBW - XlVth Meeting 16-20 June 1996
The XIVth Meeting of the North American Forest Biology Workshop will be held from 16-20 June, 1996, at Laval University, Quebec City, Quebec, Canada. The theme will be "Forest Management Impacts on Ecosystem Processes." Contact: Ms. Dominique Houde, Agora Communication. 2600 boul. Laurier (#2680), Sainte-Foy (Qc) G1V 4M6. Tel. (418) 658-6755. FAX. (418) 658-8850. Voluntary workshops, contact: Pierre Bernier, CFS. Tel. (418) 648-4524. More information at WWW site: http://forestgeomat.for.ulaval.ca/
1996 International Conference Society for Ecological Restoration 20-22 June 1996
The Society for Ecological Restoration will hold its 1996 International Conference June 20-22, 1996 at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. The theme of this year's conference is Restoration in the Urban/Rural Context, which will be examined through presentations of scientific and case studies. Conference highlights include speakers, poster session displays and accompanying guild session. Pre- and post-conference fields trips will explore actual restoration projects in the New York/New Jersey/Pennsylvania area. For additional information, please contact SER '96 Conference Center, 144 Blake Hall - Red Oak Lane, Rutgers - The State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick, NJ 08903-0231, tel. (908) 932-2917. e-mail ser96@aesop.rutgers.edu.
In Vitro Biology 22-26 June 1996
The 1996 World Congress on In Vitro Biology carries the title "Biotechnology: From Fundamental Concepts to Reality." It is scheduled to meet at the San Francisco Marriott, San Francisco, California, June 22-26, 1996. The abstract deadline is January 12,1996. For further information, contact meeting coordinator Tiffany McMillan, tel. 410-992-0946, fax 410-992-0949.
<left>
</left>
Canadian Botanical Association 23-27 June 1996
"Prince Edward Island: Conservation in Action" will be the topic of the 1996 Annual meeting of the Canadian Botanical Association, held at the University of Prince Edward Island in Atlantic Canada, June 23-27. The organizing committee welcomes submissions from the following fields of research in plant science: ecology, mycology, systematics and phytogeography, structure and development. The annual conference symposium is entitled: Biodiversity and Conservation in Canada. Other conference activities include: workshop on the pre-review process by the editor in chief of the Canadian Journal of Botany, and a demonstration on scanning electron microscopy digital imaging. Social events include: lobster dinner, harbour cruise, deep sea fishing, and canoeing. Field trips to dune systems and offshore islands have also been scheduled. The Association extends a special invitation to BSA members. The basic registration fee is approx. $120 US for regular participants and $50US for students and includes a full year membership in the Canadian Botanical Association. For more information contact: CBA'96 c/o department of Biology, University of Prince Edward Island, 550 University Avenue, Charlottetown, PEI, CIA 4P3, Canada. Tel. 902-566-0974 Fax. 902-566-0740 E-mail CBA96@upei.ca
Seventh International Symposium on Pollination 23-28 June 1996
The Seventh International Symposium on Pollination will be held in Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada from 23-28 June, 1996. The general theme will be "Pollination: From Theory to Practice." For additional information, contact Ken W. Richards, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Lethbridge Research Centre, P.O. Box 3000, Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada TlJ 4B 1, or Richards@abrslc.agr.ca
IOPC-V 30 June - 5 July 1996
The Fifth International Organization of Paleobotany Conference (IOPC-V) will take place on the campus of the University of California at Santa Barbara (UCSB), Santa Barbara, California, USA, from 30 June through 5 July 1996. The theme of the conference is floristic evolution and biogeographic interchange through geologic time. The program will include eight morning symposia and four afternoons of contributed papers and posters, followed by two optional 7-day field trips. The first circular, containing a detailed description and registration information, is available from Bruce H. Tiffney, Department of Geological Sciences, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106. Fax: 805-893-2314, e-mail: tiffney@magic.ucsb.edu.
38
Extant and Fossil Charophytes 7-13 July 1996
The 2nd International Symposium on extant and fossil Charophytes (Charales) at Madison, Wisconsin, will cover a wide scope of topics dealing with extant and fossil forms and fossil/extant relationships; a session will be devoted to the evolutionary position and taxonomic status of the Charophyta. For more information, please contact Dr. Linda Graham (Department of Botany, University of Wisconsin - Madison, 430 Lincoln Drive, Madison, Wisconsin 53706-1381, fax 608-262-7509, e-mail graham@macc.wisc.edu) or Dr. Monique Feist (Colloque Charophytes, Laboratoirc de Paleobotanique, UM2, 34095 Montpellier cedex 05, France, fax 33.67.04.20.32, e-mail mofeist@isem.univ-montp2.fr).
Biothechnology and Natural Products 27-31 July 1996
The 37th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Pharmacognosy (ASP) will he held in Santa Cruz CA from July 27 - 31, 1996. The primary theme of this meeting will be "Biotechnology and Natural Products." Six symposia will feature an outstanding group of scientists in this field. In addition to the plenary sessions, a large number of contributed oral and poster sessions will be scheduled, which will cover a broad spectrum of current research in the field of natural products. A unique feature of the ASP meeting, the Young Investigator's Symposium, will feature promising researchers within the first few years of their first independent possitions. For additional information, contact Roy K. Okuda, Department of Chemistry, San Jose. State University, San Jose CA 95192-0101 USA, e-mail okuda@sjsuvml.sjsu.edu.
Sixth International Symposium On Vaccinium Culture 12-17 August 1996
The Vaccinium Symposium is to begin at the University of Maine on August 12. There will be field tours of Maine wild blueberry activities on August 12 and 13. On August 14 and 15 we will have oral and poster presentations and discussion sessions. The Symposium will conclude with a field tour of Massachusetts cranberry research, production and the Ocean Spray Processing Plant on August 16 and 17.
Registration: Final registration forms, a complete program, tour and lodging details will be sent by March 15, but only to those who return the preliminary application form to the conveners. Symposium Costs The registration fee for the symposium will be approximately 320 US$ for ISHS members and 350 US$ for non-members. Exact cost will depend on the number of participants and sponsor contributions. The fee will include one copy of the symposium proceedings in Acta
Horticulturae for registered participants. This fee will also cover the bus tours and banquets.
Deadlines: Titles of contributed oral presentations or posters must be submitted by February 1, 1996. An abstract of the poster or paper (maximum: 200 words) must be mailed, faxed or Emailed by March 15, 1996. Deadline for receipt of papers and final registration forms by the symposium conveners is May 15, 1996. To receive more information on the Symposium, mail, fax or Email the following information to the conveners: David E. Yarborough and John M. Smagula, University of Maine, 5722 Deering Hall, Orono, Maine, 04469-5722 USA, Fax: (207) 581-2941 or (207) 581-2999, Phone: (207) 581-2923 or (207) 581-2925, Email Davey@umce.umext.maine.edu
Natural Science Collections Symposium 20-24 August 1996
The Geological Conservation Unit and the Department of Earth Sciences of the University of Cambridge are organizing the Second International Symposium and World Congress on the Preservation of Natural History Collections to occur August 20-24, 1996 at St. Johns College, Cambridge, U.K. The theme will be "Natural Science Collections - A Resource for the Future"
The second Congress will continue the work of the first Congress by bringing leading figures in industry, research, education and natural science museums together to discuss future developments and a joint cooperative approach towards the challenges presented by the preservation of natural science collections, and to look at the practical aspects of putting the strategics in place. The Congress is co-sponsored by several collections support organizations, including the Association of Systematics Collections and the Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections.
For more information, please contact: Chris Collins, Natural Sciences Congress '96, Geological conservation Unit, Department of Earth Sciences, Downing Street, Cambridge, CB 2 3EQ, United Kingdom, tel: (0223) 62522, fax: (0223) 60779.
34th Systematics Symposium at MEG 4-5 October 1996
This year's Systematics Symposium at the Missour Botanical Garden has been organized by George Schatz and Bette Loiselle. The topic is "New Tools for Investigating Biodiversity." The symposium will be held on Friday and Saturday October 4th and 5th. Further details will be posted on the Garden's Web Page (http:// www.mobot.org) as they are received. You will be able to register by e-mail but it will still be necessary for you to mail in your check or credit card information (do not send your credit card information by e-mail).
39
A symposium notice will also be mailed. If you wish to add your name to the symposium mailing list, send the information to Systematics Symposium, Missouri Botanical Garden, PO Box 299, St. Louis, Missouri 63166-0299.
The format will follow the traditional one to which many of us have become accustomed. There will be a social mixer on the Friday from 7:30-9:00 p.m. The seven presented papers will be on the Saturday, beginning at 8:30 a.m., with the final paper at 8:00 p.m. after the symposium dinner. For more information, contact P. Mick Richardson, Missouri Botanical Garden (ri ch ards @ mobot. org).
2nd Crop Science Congress 17-23 November 1996
The second International Crop Science Congress (ICSC) is scheduled 17 to 23 Nov. 1996 at the Hotel Ashok, Chanakyapuri, in New Delhi, India. In-creasing population and declining assets of natural re-sources constitute a major challenge to global food security. This concern has led congress organizers to choose the theme: Crop Productivity and Sustainability: Shaping the Future. Three categories of presentations at the congress will be plenary, symposia, and posters. In addition, working groups will deliberate on topics of specific interests for framing policy documents. Popular lectures will also be organized on some evenings. Registration is US$300 by 1 June 1996, $400 thereafter. Accompanying members cost $100 each, as does a student registration without proceedings. For more information contact: Prof. S.K. Sinha, Secretary-General, 2nd ICSC, National Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi - 110 012, INDIA, Fax No.: 91-11-5753678, Telephone Nos.: 91-11-5753677 / 5753713.
International Conference on Plants and Environmental Pollution 26-30 November 1996
An International Conference on Plants and Environmental Pollution is being organized by the Inter-national Society of Environmental Biologists and the National Botanical Research Institute, Lucknow, India. The conference will include a number of sessions and lectures from 26 to 30 Novemebr, 1996. For further information, please contact Dr. K. J. Ahmad, Organising Secretery ICPEP-96, National Botanical Research Institute, Rana Pratap Marg, Lucknow - 226 001 (India). Tel. 91 (0522) 271031-35 ext. 209/221. Fax: 91 (1522) 282881; 282849. E-mail manager@nbri.sirnetd.ernet.in.
Temperature Stress in Plants 26-31 January 1997
A Gordon Conference on Temperature Stress in Plants will be held at the Colony Harbortown Hotel, Ventura, California, from January 26-31, 1997. The conference will focus on metabolism at low temperature, temperature sensing and signal transduction, stress proteins, membranes, vernalization, climate change, plant biotechnology and crop production in stressful environments. The organizers are Donald Ort, chair, and Charles Guy, vice chair. For additional information, contact Gordon Re-search Conferences, University of Rhode Island, P.O. Box 984, West Kingston, RI 02892-0984; telephone 401-783-7644, fax 401-783-4011, e-mail grc@grcmail.grc.uri.edu
13th Symposium Morphology, Anatomy and Systematics 6-11 April 1997
A symposium will be held in Leuven, Belgium at the University of Leuven from April 6-11, 1997, entitled "13th Symposium Morphology, Anatomy and Systematics." Further information can be obtained from the Symposium Secretariat, Laboratory of Plant Systematics, Botanical Institute, KU Leuven, Kardinaal Mercierlaan 92, B-3001 Leuven (Belgium) - Telephone: (**32)16 321545; Fax: (**32)16 321979.
<left>
</left>
40
<left> </left>Book Reviews
In this Issue:
Conservation Biology:
p. 42 Collecting Plant Genetic Diversity. Technical Guidelines. Guarino, L.; V.R. Rao and R. Reid, eds. (1995) — Luiz Carvaiho
Ecological:
p. 42 Biogenic Trace Gases: Measuring Emissions from Soil and Water. P.A. Matson and R.C. Harriss, eds. (1995) — Jonathan Frye
p. 44 Forest Canopies M.D. Lowman and N.M. Nadkarni, eds. (1995) — John M. Kasmer
. p. 45 Genecology and Ecogeographic Races Kruckeberg, Arthur R., Richard B. Walker and Alan E. Leviton, eds. (1995) — David Ackerly
p. 46 Sonoran Desert Plants: An Ecological Atlas R. M. Turner, J. E. Bowers, and T. L. Burgess. (1995) - Jochen Schenk
p. 48 Species Diversity in Space and Time. M.L. Rosenzweig. (1995) — M.H.H. Stevens, D.F. Raikow, M.R. Servedio, R.J. Collins, T.L. Schumann, A.N. Tipper, and W.P. Carson
p. 50 Terrestrial Orchids from Seed to Mycotrophic Plant Hanne N. Rasmussen. (1995) — Robert Ernst
p. 50 Tropical Forests: Management and Ecology A. E. Lugo and C. Lowe, Editors. (1995) — Aaron M. Ellison
Economic Botany:
p. 51 Ethnobotany. Evolution of a Discipline. Richard Evans Schultes & Sid von Reis, eds. (1995) — Ronald A. Balsamo
General:
p. 52 Plants and Their Names - A Concise Dictionary Roger Hyam and Richard Pankhurst (1995) — Shane Latimer
Historical:
p. 52 Botany in India: History and Progress, Vol. I and Vol. II Johri, B. M., ed. (1994) — Satish K. Srivastava
Horticultural:
p. 54 The Book of Rhododendrons. Marianna Kneller (1995) — David R. Hershey
p. 55 Wisterias: A Comprehensive Guide. Peter Valder (1995) — David R. Hershey
Molecular Biology:
p. 55 Molecular and Cellular Aspects of Plant Reproduction. R. J. Scott and A. D. Stead, eds. (1994) — Darlene Southworth
p. 56 DNA Fingerprinting in Plants and Fungi. Weising, K., H. Nybom, K. Wolff and W. Meyer (1994) - Matthew B. Hamilton
Mycological:
p. 57 Mycorrhiza. Structure, Function, Molecular Biology and Biotechnology. Ajit Varma and Bertold Hock, eds. (1995) — Samuel Hammer
Phytochemical:
p. 58 Modern Methods of Plant Analysis Vol. 15: Alkaloids H.F. Linskens and J.F. Jackson, eds. (1994) - Timothy Morton
Systematic:
p. 59 Flora De Manantlān. J. Antonio Vazquez G., Ramōn Cuevas G., Theodore S. Cochran, Hugh H. Iltis, Francisco J. Santana M., and Luis Guzman H. (1995) — B. L. Turner
p. 60 Manual of Grasses. Rick Darke, Ed. (1994) — Gregory P. Cheplick
p. 61 Only in Arkansas, A Study of the Endemic Plants and Animals of the State. H. W. Robison and R. T. Allen (1995) — Jerry M. Baskin
41
Collecting Plant Genetic Diversity. Technical Guidelines. Guarino, L.; V.R. Rao and R. Reid, eds. 1995. ISBN 0-85198-964-0 (Cloth US$120), 748 pp. CAB International, Wallingford, Oxon. Ox 8DE, UK. — Plant genetic diversity is a key component of any agricultural production system. As a consequence of the activities of breeders in developing crop varieties, how-ever, biodiversity is replaced by uniformity, just when the need for diversity is required in the other side. To cope with these opposing forces and needs, the continued collection of plant genetic diversity collecting is fully justified and needed. Therefore this book is welcome not only in this context, but also in overall concerns regarding biodiversity.
The book was born out of the "need for an overall guideline to be followed" if one is to collect plant genetic resources. Theoretical principles and background, compiled information and requirements needed for planning collecting missions, technical tips and advice, case study experiences from National programs as well as particular crop species are organized in the 39 chapters of this book.
The complexity of the subject is set in the first three chapters, two from the co-sponsors (IBPGR, FAO, UNEP and IUCN) and another from one of the editors (L. Guarino) which give a summary of the book. The main weakness of this section, especially for the novice, is a missing point on how to use the guidelines addressed in the following section.
A section dealing with the planning of the collecting mission has 14 chapters with specific theoretical background and resource information. The Chapters by A.H.D. Brown and D.R. Marshall (Ch. 5), R. von Bothmer and O. Seberg (Ch. 6), and E.A. Frison and G.V .H. Jackson (Ch. 17), are the most important for those concerned with the conservation and utilization of gcrmplasm resources. These papers outline important considerations and provide valuable procedures for sampling genetic diversity. The pitfalls of sampling populations for different proposes are discussed and the authors demonstrate how an overall sampling guideline can be adapted for different situations in the execution of the field work. Unfortunately, many of these recommendations always seemed to me to be underused in the past and in practice.
A common dilemma for the collector in the execution of the field work is the trade-off between collecting germplasm and collecting data. Of course both have the same importance, and deciding on this is up to the collector and on the immediate purpose of the collecting. The section of the book dealing with the field work has 10 chapters. They provide the reader with good guidelines of how to search for, sample, document, transport and store different plant materials. Alternative approaches for sampling in vitro and pollen material are discussed where standard procedure is problematic. However, limited experience in manipulating samples and subsequent propagation of the material will be a serious drawback to using these techniques for most of the collectors.
Guidelines for organization, documentation, reporting and information storage are discussed in the section of "back to base". These guidelines closely follow the standard requirements of IBPGR (International Plant Genetic Resources Institute). It is very important that these guidelines be followed, especially in relation to the storage of information in a computer database.
The most vexing question faced by the gennplasm collector is to put sampling theory into practice, especially in collecting wild species. It is clear from the chapters in the sections dealing with "case-studies" that lack of precise information on previous collecting missions and basic taxonomy comprise the major draw-backs to planing and carrying out a collecting mission.
This book is a detailed account of collecting procedures for most of the needs for germplasm conservation and utilization. One can only hope that the book is made available for all involved in conservation biology specially for those in countries of most needs. — Luiz J.C.B. Carvalho, CENARGEN (Brazilian National Research Center for Genetic Resources and Biotechnology)/EMBRAPA (Brazilian National Research Enterprise)
<left>
</left>
Biogenic Trace Gases: Measuring Emissions from Soil and Water. P.A. Matson and R.C. Harriss, eds. 1995. ISBN 0-632-03641-9 (paper, US$49.95) Blackwell Science Ltd., Osney Mead, Oxford OX2 OEL. — This book is the newest member of the Methods in Ecology Series. The series aims "to provide ecologists with concise and authoritative books that will guide them in choosing and applying an appropriate methodology to their problem." In particular, this book tackles the complexities of measuring or estimating trace gas concentrations, their production and transport rates, and their global distributions and budgets. In a logically organized sequence of 1 1 chapters, the editors and 20 other contributing authors delve into the difficulties inherent in such an interdisciplinary field. To truly understand biogcnic trace gas emissions one must be either simultaneously a micro-biologist, a soil scientist, a botanist, an hydrologist, an atmospheric scientist, a computer modeler, and an "instrumentalist" capable of reliable measurements of invisible compounds at part-per-trillion concentrations, or one must be willing to collaborate knowledgeably with others who have complementary areas of expertise. This book performs a valuable service both to specialists in each of
42
the fields mentioned above, and to those seeking to be better educated collaborators.
The introductory chapter by the editors argues persuasively that no single method is appropriate to all scales or purposes, and that there is great value in studies that compare and combine multiple approaches to measuring both trace gas fluxes and the ecological processes that control them. The need for versatility in a researcher's approach to data collection and analysis has been matched recently by the advances in measurement hardware and computer software. Staying abreast of these advances would be difficult or impossible were it not the sort of timely review articles which this volume attempts to provide. After reading this collection from cover to cover I realize how many novel techniques and subtle but important variations on established techniques were unfamiliar to me, but which I now feel prepared to evaluate as I choose appropriate methodologies. My mental toolbox has been considerably enlarged by the experience.
Chapters 2-11 deal with techniques, applications, processes and theories related to biogenic trace gases: specifically; enclosure based measurements, ex-change across the air-water interface, ebullition and plant transport, micrometeorological techniques, standard analytical methods, measurement of chemically reactive trace gases at ambient concentrations, spectroscopic instrumentation, use of isotopes and tracers, microbial processes, and spatial extrapolation of process models. For such a diverse collection of topics and authors, these chapters exhibited considerable uniformity of quality, depth, and sophistication, treading carefully the fine line between sufficient detail and rigor as to be thorough, helpful, and authoritative without crossing over into the realm of inaccessible jargon. This consistency in tone and quality is a reflection of the skill of the editors as well as that of the other authors.
Concomitant with the consistent strengths of the chapters are two consistent weaknesses. The first is that, of the hundreds of references cited, less than a handful were published in 1994 or 1995. When a book presents the cutting edge of innovation in a rapidly evolving field, a two-year lag between writing and distribution is nearly too long. This book does present a substantial amount of innovation, but also includes relatively time-less reference material on the fundamentals of measurement, extrapolation, and biogenesis, and so the question of immediacy is somewhat buffered. Whether the delay was an artefact of the authors, the editors, or the printers I cannot say, but I would urge them to work diligently to bring future volumes of the series to press in a more timely manner. The second weakness has to do with the applicability of the information contained in the volume. A wide variety of instrumentation was described in some detail. Some of the instruments are obviously prototypes under development in research laboratories. Others are referred to as commercially available, but no list of manufacturers is provided. It is good to know that tunable diode laser absorption spectroscopy can be used for the continuous determination of carbon monoxide and is commercially available, but it would be better to have the names and addresses of several manufacturers. Model numbers would likely be out of date by the time of publication, but a majority of the manufacturers should still be in business.
In a work of this length one expects a certain number of typographical errors. This volume had fewer than I expected, and only two that might cause confusion: p230 "GC with flame photometric detection (GC-FID)" should read "(GC-FPD)" ; and p361 "No production" should read "NO production." The handful of other errors I noticed were even more minor, and the first of them did not appear until p226. Altogether, the editors are to be commended for the quality and attention to detail readily apparent in their work.
I would suggest that future volumes in the Methods in Ecology Series consider including a table of contents at the beginning of each chapter. Such tables provide a helpful orientation to the scope and organization of the chapter at a glance, and aid in quickly relocating specific passages when the work is later consulted.
In conclusion, this volume does an excellent job of helping ecologists choose appropriate methodologies from among techniques which are currently available and analytical methods which will be available in the near future. It does an adequate to good job of guiding ecologists in the application of the method(s) of choice. I recommend it heartily for graduate students through professionals with interests in atmospheric trace gases, global climate change, or interdisciplinary approaches in the environmental sciences. —Jonathan Frye, McPherson College, McPherson , Kansas
<left>
</left>
43
Forest Canopies M.D. Lowman and N.M. Nadkarni, eds. 1995. 624 pp. ISBN 0-12-457650-8 (US$69.95, cloth). Academic Press. — As an ecologist interested in forest canopies primarily as dynamic physical components of trees involved in assimilation and support, I was surprised but pleased to discover that "Forest Canopies" is more a book about the biology and ecology of organ-isms that make forest canopies their homes. Thus, a more accurate title may have been "The Ecology of Forest Canopies". However, it is because of its broad coverage that I recommend this book for anyone interested in or actively studying any aspect of canopy biology.
The book comprises 24 chapters arranged into four parts: the structure and function of tree canopies, organisms in tree canopies, processes in tree canopies and human impacts on canopy research. The writing is uniformly good, the editing is flawless, and the text is well supported by excellent graphs, line drawings and tables. Six of the chapters also include black-and-white photo-graphs, well-chosen to illustrate things that are difficult to convey with words, such as the diversity of epiphytic growth forms. The scope and tenor of articles vary widely, ranging from encyclopedic (e.g. Rhoades' chap-ter on nonvascular epiphytes and Coxson & Nadkarni's chapter on the ecosystem-level roles of epiphytes) to brief essay (e.g. Perry's chapter promoting his Aerial Tram/ Center for Canopy Exploration). The book also includes an index with both subject and species entries. However, because the species entries are not exhaustive, their use-fulness is diminished.
The first part consists of four varied chapters. Moffett & Lowman provide an interesting, non-technical summary of techniques for accessing the upper canopy, ranging from free-climbing to single-rope techniques to canopy booms and dirigibles. (Issues of access are also discussed in a later chapter by Munn & Loiselle, whose creative suggestions include using satellites to track large birds fitted with transmitters and visually tracking smaller birds using ultra-light aircraft.) Halle, a pioneer in the field of plant architectural analysis, provides a terse summary of architectural approaches to characterizing trees. However, the bulk of this section is made up of two chapters on the micrometeorology of forest canopies. In the first of these, Fitzjarrald & Moore convincingly argue that understanding the mechanisms of heat and mass exchange within canopies as well as between canopies and the atmosphere can be vital to understanding basic biological processes (such as the dispersal of propagules) of canopy plants and fungi. The chapter by Parker on the structure and microclimate of forest canopies is particularly readable and includes an extensive, thorough list of interesting references that ranges far beyond micrometeorology.
The twelve chapters that comprise the section on organisms in tree canopies vary widely in scope and approach, but almost unanimously point out how little we know about the organisms that utilize the upper canopy, how important it is to use sound, standardized and repeat- able sampling techniques in order to allow comparative work to be done, and how the three-dimensionality of forest canopies (or perhaps more accurately the magnitude of the third dimension) introduces difficulties into both the generation and statistical analysis of data from forest canopies. Munn & Loiselle make clear the dearth of basic knowledge about the ecology of canopies by pointing out that "when one considers that birds are the best known of tropical organisms, [the] ignorance of the biology and adaptations of canopy birds is sobering, and suggests how profoundly ignorant we are of most canopy biology for all other... organisms." Erwin (on arthropods in general) and Tobin (on ants in particular) point out that a major problem in assessing the diversity of invertebrates in the canopy is in identifying the large numbers of individuals that can be collected relatively quickly by various "knock-down" collecting methods. The chapters on the distribution and ecology of hemiepiphytes (Williams-Linera & Lawton), epiphytes (Benzing, Rhoades), and mites that live on leafblades (Walter & O'Dowd) illustrate plainly the difficulties of designing sampling schemes when the goal is to generate data that elucidate habitat preferences and patterns of colonization, growth and succession of organisms that use 3-dimensional habitats. Along similar lines, Reagan (working with Anolis lizards) and Malcolm (working with small mammals) illustrate how poorly-suited most canopy-access techniques are for studying the home ranges, foraging activity and fine-scale vertical and horizontal stratification of small and mobile vertebrates. In contrast, larger mammals apparently offer fewer obstacles to study: Emmons' article on "the reciprocal issues of (1) the characters that [nonflying] mammals have for canopy life and (2) the characters the canopy has for mammal life" is well-crafted and provides a wealth of comparative ecological data in a strongly evolutionary context.
The next four chapters provide a well-balanced overview of processes in tree canopies. In a short chapter, Holbrook & Lund provide an accessible introduction into the photosynthetic properties of entire canopies and the problems of scaling from leaf to canopy. Their discussion about processes that affect carbon gain contrasts nicely with Lowman's engagingly-written chapter on herbivory as a canopy process. After showing that the magnitude of leaf loss to herbivory can vary greatly depending on whether it is determined using "snap-shot" or long-term techniques, she provides some possible protocols for sampling. However, she also acknowledges that "for most studies that are situated in remote sites, techniques that are more rapid and time-efficient must be developed." Rather than suggesting that new techniques are necessary, Murawski, in her chapter on reproductive biology and genetics, argues that modern genetic techniques will he useful in determining the genetic structure of populations of tropical trees. Because many of these species typically occur at very low population densities, she concludes that "more emphasis should be focused on the consequences of rarity [and of selective logging] on
44
the maintenance of species and genetic diversity." The concluding chapter of this section of the book examines the ecological roles of epiphytes in nutrient cycles. This article by Coxson & Nadkarni is notable not only for its thoroughness and its strong ecosystem approach, but also because of how well it complements Rhoades' exhaustive survey of the distribution and abundance of nonvascular epiphytes. Coxson & Nadkarni show that epiphytes may play many roles in ecosystems, serving for example as significant buffers of carbon and terrestrially- and atmospherically-derived nutrients.
The final section of the book allegedly deals with human impacts on canopy research, but actually describes human activities in forest canopies and provides justifications for the conservation of forests. Bennett provides an interesting catalogue of ethnobotanical and economic uses of "host-dependent plants" (epiphytes and lianas). Ingrid & Lowman emphasize that in order to fully characterize floras and effectively implement conservation strategies, both ground- and canopy-based collection techniques should be employed, and more thorough ecological information should be provided with the samples. Finally, in his five-page essay, Perry notes that in order for ecotourism to contribute effectively to conservation efforts, it will be necessary to minimize human impacts on conserved areas and engage the interest of local people, then goes on to pitch his Aerial Tram and Center for Canopy Exploration.
Lowman and Nadkarni note in their concluding chapter that "one goal of assembling this book was to allow readers to evaluate the `state of the art' of canopy science. Research accomplishments, gaps in our knowledge, . . . and avenues for future investigations are now evident." "Forest Canopies" accomplishes this goal quite successfully, and will contribute to the development of canopy science as a field with its abundance of suggestions for future research that will not only fill in major gaps of understanding, but supply a generation of graduate students with thesis topics as well! For example, Munn & Loiselle (birds), Benzing (vascular epiphytes), and Lowman (herbivory) provide lists of unanswered questions, and the other contributors regularly end paragraphs by pointing out what needs to be done next.
In his preface to the book, Thomas Lovejoy rightly contends that "there is no better evidence than canopy biology that the age of exploration is not over." This book will provide an excellent introduction to canopy biology for those just embarking on their explorations, and will provide rich and rewarding contexts for those who have already discovered land among the branches.
Postscript: A major thesis of the editors of "Forest Canopies" is that the field of canopy science needs to be made more standardized in terms of sampling schemes so that comparative work can be done and so that data can be shared and utilized by people asking different sorts of questions. Ultimately, this means increasing communication among canopy researchers, both before and after publication of results. For example, in the mid-1980s "it came as a great surprise [to the two editors of this volume that they had independently] developed the same techniques for using slingshots and ropes to conduct ecologically replicated sampling throughout tropical tree canopies. . . . If only we could have networked via E-mail, then perhaps we could have been making exciting intercontinental comparative studies of epiphytes and herbivores!" To this end, the International Canopy Net-work (ICAN) was formed in 1994. ICAN publishes both a directory of members and a quarterly newsletter, and maintains both a WWW site (http://esnet.edu/ican) and an E-mail bulletin board for discussion of canopy research. It remains to he seen if these sites fulfill the stated goal of increasing communication among canopy researchers, especially given the ironies that the E-mail addresses of the contributors were not included in the book, and that only 8 of the 31 contributing authors were subscribed to the bulletin board at the time this review was written. — John M. Kasmer, Department of Biology, University of Michigan
Genecology and Ecogeographic Races Kruckeberg, Arthur R., Richard B. Walker and Alan
-
Leviton, eds. 1995. ISBN 0-934394-10-5 (cloth US$28.95), 285 pp. Pacific Division, American Association for the Advancement of Science, California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco CA 94118
The papers in this volume originate from the 73rd Annual Meeting of the Pacific Division of the AAAS, held to commemorate the 100th birthday of Gōte Turesson. Turesson (1892-1970) conducted pioneering work in plant ecology and experimental systematics, and is well-known as the founder of the field of genecology and the ecotype concept. Turesson had both intellectual and personal ties to developments in plant ecology in the Western United States. He received his undergraduate degree in botany from the University of Washington, where he conducted his first researches. His studies of population differentiation in plant species, based on extensive field observations and common garden experiments in his native Sweden, paralleled the early work of
-
Clements and H. M. Hall in Colorado. These laid the foundation for the famous investigations by J. Clausen and colleagues at the experimental taxonomy unit at the
<left> </left>
45
Carnegie Institute of Washington, and in 1934 Turesson returned to the United States to attend the Institute's annual meeting.
The fourteen essays that make up this book include several historical notes and a series of research and review papers addressing aspects of ecogeographic variation. Readers with an historical bent will enjoy the first four essays on Turesson' s life and work, in particular the personal recollections of Lewis and Stebbins. Mtlntzing's memorial published after his death, along with a complete bibliography of his work, is also reprinted here. Chambers examines Turesson's contributions to plant taxonomy, and the influence of his experimental studies of ecotypes on the understanding of species as biological entities. Continued research in this area led to a shift in focus from the typological concept of the ecotype to the more continuous notion of ecotypic variation. The study of population differentiation within species became a central focus of population biology, and the concepts of genecology lost their pivotal role in systematics. The remainder of the papers in this book reflect this shift, as they focus on patterns of ecogeographic variation within species, and the underlying ecological and evolutionary processes that facilitate or mitigate genetic differentiation among populations. The broad range of research topics reflects the widespread influence of Turesson's work on contemporary population biology. The result, however, is a rather eclectic collection, providing "a broad picture of current applications of genecology in a range of plants and animals." These include essays on differentiation in butterflies (Shapiro, Singer et al.), ecotypic variation on serpentine soils (Kruckeberg), the reproductive cycles of cereal rusts (Mac Key), the genetics of floral morphology (Svensson), and the territorial songs of Galapagos finches (Bowman).
As a plant ecologist, three papers stood out in this book. Baker's "Aspects of genecology in weeds" is a characteristically wide-ranging and idiosyncratic essay. He reviews numerous studies documenting the presence or absence of ecotypic variation, and uses each one to illustrate a more general point, such as the influence of `general purpose genotypes', breeding system, orhybridization. Platenkamp and Shaw examine the limits to adaptive differentiation, setting the problem of population differentiation in the context of current quantitative genetic theory. And lastly, Andersson presents a synthesis of his recent studies on geographical differentiation in Crepis tectorurn. He has utilized a broad range of methods, both old and new, to address past and current patterns of selection in this species. These include the study of plasticity and population differentiation in experimental gardens, phenotypic selection analysis, and phylogenetic analysis of the relationship among populations. This paper is a model of a new generation of experimental genecology. It is also the most fitting tribute to Turesson, whose most important work as well as Andersson's studies were both carried out at the University of Lund.
The book is well-edited and securely bound. It has a slightly old-fashioned feel - no glossy photos and shiny paper - but the price is hard to beat for a cloth edition. "Genecology and Ecogeographic Races" pays tribute to a pioneering researcher whose influence pervades modern population biology. The editors have not attempted to review the state of research in this broadly defined field. But the selective reader will be rewarded, whether by the recollections of those who knew Turesson or by some of the modern incarnations of his ideas in the context of contemporary population biology. — David Ackerly, Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University
<left>
</left>
Sonoran Desert Plants: An Ecological Atlas R. M. Turner, J. E. Bowers, and T. L. Burgess. 1995. ISBN 0-8165-1532-8, 504 pp. (cloth US$70). The University of Arizona Press, 1230 N. Park Ave., Suite 102, Tucson, AZ 85719-4140 —This book is a major update of the atlas by Hastings, J. R., R. M. Turner, and D. K. Warren. (1972. An atlas of some plant distributions in the Sonoran Desert. The University of Arizona Institute of Atmospheric Physics.). The atlas has changed from a collection of 238 distribution maps to a collection of 339 species monographs plus distribution maps plus 67 pages of references. The new reference list alone is probably reason enough for any plant ecologist who has worked in the southwestern deserts to rush out to their favorite bookstore and get this book.
Most of us who have any interested in Sonoran Desert plants would probably open this book somewhere in the middle to see whether our favorite plants are included. If your favorite plants happen to be annuals or perennial grasses you are out of luck If your interest is in woody plants and succulents, you will probably find what you are looking for. (Only one perennial grass, Meal-aphis rigida, made it into this collection, an appropriate choice, as it has been argued that this species is functionally more similar to a shrub than to other bunchgrasses.)
46
When I looked for my current favorite plant, Ambrosia dumosa, I was rewarded by a species mono-graph two pages long; a map of the distribution by state; a dot map of the distribution in the Sonoran Desert; and an "elevational profile"- a graph depicting the distribution by altitude versus latitude. The monograph was impressive: information from 46 references was included, giving the scientific name, authority, and synonym, two common names, a description of the plant, summaries of its taxonomy, habitat, biogeography and vegetational history, reproductive ecology, phenology, physiology, community ecology, life cycle, herbivores, horticulture, and mycorrhizal association. The information was highly condensed but very well structured. Having compiled information for a similar species monograph during three years of literature search, I was impressed by the completeness of the information and happy to be able CO add another ten references to my personal reference database.
As is to be expected, not all species are treated in so much detail, but all species accounts include at least a description and a short characterization of habitat and distribution. All have distribution maps and elevational profiles. Each map shows the distribution within the Sonoran and, to some degree, the Mojave Desert and their periphery; an additional map shows the continental distribution by state. The distribution data are based on personal collections and observations by the authors, as well as by other individuals, agencies, and specimens from six major herbaria. Because of the somewhat uneven coverage, maps such as that for Larrea tridentate show some rather peculiar blank spots in the distribution, as well as linear patterns along major highways, and anyone who has worked in the desert could easily fill in additional observations. However, this should be no major handicap for the usefulness of these maps.
Apart from this minor shortcoming, the maps have all the advantages of dot grid maps over range area maps. It is easy to determine from these maps, whether a species is common or sporadic in any given larger area. A disadvantage of the chosen map format is that it is difficult to identify specific locations on the map because the only geographical markers included are the coastline, state borders, and a few settlements. It would have been helpful to include major rivers and higher elevation con-tour lines. The contour map that is included in the introduction is so hard to read that it is not very helpful. The earlier version of this book by Hastings et al. had overlay maps of major rivers, settlements and roads, which are unfortunately not included in this new book.
Of course, one could argue about the choice of species included in this collection. It reflects, as the authors state, apart from a list of the undisputed dominants of the region, largely the interests of the authors. One may wonder about the absence of halophytes such as Suaeda and Allenrolfea, and marvel at the inclusion of some thornscrub species that are mainly found outside the Sonoran Desert Region, but, after all, the line had to be drawn somewhere (one can always hope for future editions). I found only one major error in a species account that was probably caused by the necessity to condense information from a scientific paper to one sentence. On page 258, it is stated that extracts from living roots of Larrea tridentata were found to inhibit root growth of Larrea, as well as Ambrosia dumosa, when it was one of the main points of the cited study by Mahal] and Callaway (1991) to introduce a new method that went beyond the standard use of root extracts to determine allelopathic activities of roots.
After browsing this book for a while, most readers would probably eventually turn to the introduction. Unfortunately, they will find it mostly a disappointment. It is only seven pages long and describes mainly the methods used for data collection and map preparations. It includes a very brief discussion of the climates of the Sonoran Desert Region, but no map of climatic regimes. It does include maps that show the number of observations (plant collections and sightings), the number of species, and the number of woody legume species in one-degree grid cells in the Sonoran Desert Region. Also included is a graph that shows that the number of species recorded is an almost linear function of the number of observations below about 2000 observations per grid cell. Because only 13 out of 111 grid cells mapped exceed 2000 observations, the data obviously can not be used at this time for a geographical biodiversity analysis without correcting for number of observations.
It is stated in the introduction that one objective of this collection of distributional data was to discover the fundamental climatic regimes of characteristic Sonoran Desert species. As no maps of climatic regimes are included, it is difficult to see whether this objective was fulfilled. Granted, climates of this region are extremely difficult to characterize because there are few weather stations and the variability of the desert climate makes the usefulness of even long-term records somewhat dubious. However, the inclusion of a few climatic maps would be an immense improvement in future editions.
The authors state that this book is the reference they wished for when they began working in the Sonoran Desert and they deserve abundant praise and thanks for generously sharing their database and huge collection of references with those of us who are now beginning to work in this area. Every ecologist who works in this region will want to have a copy of this book in their lab or at least in the library. Others, who have spent a lifetime exploring the ecology of other regions, should take a look at this book and ask themselves whether they could not turn their experience and databases into similar books or even make distribution maps and reference databases available on the internet. Lastly, one would wish that such databases would become the basis for organized efforts to map the flora of entire regions and include additional observations and collections from many researchers. If there is something to be learnt from this book it is that sharing your knowledge is a good thing.— H. Jochen Schenk, University of California Santa Barbara
47
Species Diversity in Space and Time. M.L. Rosenzweig. 1995. ISBN 0-521-49952-6 (paper US$27.95) 0-521-49618-7 (cloth US$74.95) 436 pp. Cambridge University Press, 40 West 20th Street, New York NY 10011. — Rosenzweig dedicates "Species diversity in space and time" to the memory of Robert H. MacArthur with a reference from Ovid. Translated, it reads, "`Here lies Phaeton, driver of his father's chariot. If he did not handle it, at least he fell in a great enterprise."' Rosenzweig has steered the chariot well, but, at times, has given us a rough ride. This book clearly reflects MacArthur's work, and also that of MacArthur's mentor, G. E. Hutchinson. Rosenzweig continues to refine the question originally posed by Hutchinson in "Homage to Santa Rosalia." Throughout this sweeping and far ranging book, Rosenzweig addresses one question: What determines a particular number of species? This book was a monumental task, and, as we read it, we found that it both inspired and, occasionally, annoyed us.
We read "Species diversity" as part of a graduate seminar in which the expertise of the participants varied from mathematics and modeling to evolutionary biology and ecology. Each of us in turn led discussions on one or more of the chapters, and as part of the preparation, read several of the relevant references. Because Rosenzweig envisioned that this book would target graduate students, and because of our cumulative background, our review reflects opinions of what Rosenzweig hoped would be his primary audience.
The scope of the book is quite broad, but remains focused on one topic throughout, specifically, patterns and causes of species diversity. While the book focuses on the species-area relationship, it also includes relationships between species diversity and latitudinal gradients, habitat variety, disturbance, productivity, seismic activity, polyploidy, evolutionary and ecological time, body size and several food web characteristics. He spends the first fifth of the book describing all of the observed patterns in a sequence, with no discussion of the underlying mechanisms. He then spends the last four fifths discussing the mechanisms that he believes to be the most promising explanations of each of the separate patterns. Because the selected patterns are so diverse, his discussions of the mechanisms necessarily include brief chapters on speciation, extinction, niche breadth, and dynamical model systems. The information in these chapters is not exhaustive, but evidently was selected toward understanding the patterns presented in the first 90 pages. Many of us found the separation of pattern and mechanism frustrating and it made the comprehension of his explanations more difficult. At times, he seemed compelled to reiterate patterns prior to explaining them, perhaps because 100 pages or more separated the initial description of the pattern and it's hypothesized mechanism.
The strengths of this book, which lie with Rosenzweig's novel contributions, emerge in the discussions of mechanisms. His greatest contribution, the analysis of species-area curves across a large range of spatial scales, is instructive and insightful. He is thorough in both his description of the pattern and in his discussion of factors underlying the relationship. For instance, he presents an excellent discussion of the effect of sample size on species-area curves and the use of rarefaction techniques. Rosenzweig expands the earlier ideas of Terborgh and his own work in presenting a significant and convincing argument on the importance of area, alone, in promoting speciation and therefore diversity. His species-area analyses culminate in a single figure (also printed on the book jacket) which summarizes many of the major ideas in the book. He presents hypothesized causative factors (numbers of individuals, number of habitats, lower extinction rates, increased immigration and speciation rates) methodically and concisely. This is the focus of the book, and is clearly the strongest part. Many will protest the descriptive approach to ecology characterized by species-area curves. Rosenzweig, however, uses species-area relationships in an attempt to understand large scale and global patterns of diversity, which are difficult or impossible to test experimentally.
Another important contribution is his under-standing of the interaction between scale and habitat heterogeneity. He hypothesizes that at large spatiotemporal scales, habitat heterogeneity is unrelated to species diversity, while at smaller scales, habitat heterogeneity is an important determinant of species diversity. An earlier publication contained this material, but he covers it more thoroughly and with greater conviction. Rosenzweig also introduces interesting analysis techniques throughout the book, such as the use of graph theory to test for competition between bird species, the patch occupancy model of Caswell and Cohen, and the use of Markov chains to produce maximum likelihood estimates of extinction and immigration rates from census data.
In the preface, Rosenzweig hints that this book is a first draft that was "abandoned to the printer." He also alludes to the tremendous amount of work required to make writing seem conversational, unstudied, and clear. Such a conversational style may appeal to those of us tired of dense, dry text. In many instances, his simple and direct language makes his ideas very clear. Rosenzweig states, "I want to be exposed. I want you to argue about and improve my conclusions. I don't want you to wonder what they are." He generally succeeds. For instance, he defines the intermediate disturbance hypothesis in a single simple sentence that said no more and no less than is needed. In other cases his offhand language leads to ambiguity. For instance, he uses "rich" and "richness" to mean, at different times, soil fertility, productivity, and the number of species in an assemblage. In all cases, his style is provocative; it engaged us and prompted us to read the associated primary literature. This alone warrants a recommendation of the book.
Two of the most frustrating aspects of the book were Rosenzweig's continuous tendency to make unsubstantiated assertions. He repeatedly describes phenom-
48
ena as examples to support his hypotheses, but does not provide references for those examples. This is neither acceptable in peer review literature, nor is it helpful to students, either as an example of good writing or as a review of important literature. This was made more frustrating by his tendency, at times, to interpret the background literature in an unexpected manner. For instance, Rosenzweig states that omnivory is more rare in nature than would be expected, and that this is because omnivory tends to destabilize food webs, citing Pimm and Lawton (1978). He does not mention, however, that they also found that some food webs with omnivory were among the most stable, and that Pimm (1991) later decided that omnivory is generally common in nature. Another example occurs in the next chapter, where, in presenting evidence for sympatric speciation, Rosenzweig repeatedly states that new species have been created in the lab. The studies he cites, however, do not make that lofty claim, having produced only partial isolation of lab populations (e.g., Rice 1985). In his summaries of these studies, Rosenzweig did not present enough of the results to allow the reader to discover the inaccuracy of his interpretation.
Because Rosezweig states clearly that the primary purpose of this book is to function as a historical account of species diversity, we feel obligated to address this particular goal. It does not, as he intends, present today's students with all of, "...the story of species diversity in the voices that so delighted ecology"; it presents the voices that apparently delighted Rosenzweig. While this is a laudable goal for someone with the depth and breadth of knowledge of Rosenzweig, it is misleading to refer to the book as, "... a little map..." of diversity research of the 1960s and 1970s. This book is analogous to another recent book on species diversity (Huston 1994) in that its strength is founded on the vision of a single author.
Some groups will not be happy with this book. Biologists whose primary background is in evolution are likely to find the book particularly unsatisfying. Rosenzweig writes an entire book on species diversity and entire chapter on speciation without once defining a "species" or even mentioning that there is considerable controversy over what a species is. There are also several areas where the book would benefit from a phylogenetic perspective. There is no mention of phylogenetic branching patterns (i.e., the relative size of clades) and their mechanisms or discussions of patterns at a taxonomic level higher than species. He includes a small section entitled key adaptations, a highly controversial subject, which does not actually address this subject, but addresses phenotypic versatility instead. In his explanations of paleobiological patterns, he mentions and then dismisses Evolutionary Stable Strategy, and he confuses random variability with chaos. There is a dated quality about some of the material that is not intended be historical. Population geneticists may not be happy with his outdated discussion of optimization theory; Rosenzweig never presents the possibility that a species may not be at its evolutionary optimum. If this were truly a historical account, this would be understandable. Because, however, Rosenzweig seeks to propose new insights, his occasionally dated references do not always do justice to the current state of the science. Plant ecologists will find little of their work cited. This apparently reflects Rosenzweig's view of plant ecology as a poor cousin to animal ecology, though he does not seem to have a grasp of the important literature. For instance, in discussing the effects of resource heterogeneity on plants, he is not sufficiently articulate for the reader to distinguish between the theories of Grime and those of Tilman.
The value of this book reflects the expertise and perspective of Michael Rosenzweig, and overall, he is to be congratulated. The topics are quite diverse, he presents several hypotheses that are worthy of greater exploration, and his writing style is active, direct, and conversational. He also presents perspectives that are, in turn, one-sided, ambiguous, and occasionally outdated. As a result, we recommend this book with several caveats. We cannot recommend this book as a road map to a former era, as a font of wisdom for students, or an encyclopedic or unbiased source of information. If you study the determinants of species diversity, however, read this book. It covers a tremendous breadth of material and thus gives a fine starting place to begin to answer the question, "Why are there this many species here?" — M.H.H. Stevens, D.F. Raikow, M.R. Servedio, R.J. Collins, T.L. Schumann, A.N. Tipper, Long, Z.T., and W.P. Carson, University of Pittsburgh
Literature Cited
Huston, M.A. 1994. Biological Diversity: The coexistence of species on changing landscapes. Cambridge University Press, Great Britain.
Pimm, S.L. 1991. The Balance of Nature? Ecological issues in the conservation of species and communities. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.
Pimm, S.L. and J.H. Lawton. 1978. On feeding on more than one trophic level. Nature 275: 542-544.
Rice, W.R. 1985. Disruptive selection on habitat preference and the evolution of reproductive isolation: an exploratory experiment. Evolution 39:645-656.
<left>
</left>
49
Terrestrial Orchids from Seed to Mycotrophic Plant Hanne N. Rasmussen. 1995. ISBN 0-521-45165-5 (cloth US$64.95) 444 pp. Cambridge University Press, 40 W. 20th St., New York NY 10011-4211. — This book comprises an excellent treatment of terrestrial orchids of the Northern Hemisphere. The author has contributed considerably to understanding relating to environmental factors affecting germination and development of temperate terrestrial orchids in vitro and in vivo. A substantial portion of the book is devoted to discussion of the literature on the subject of symbiotic and asymbiotic propagation of these plants. This includes a number of previously unpublished data from research by the author and others. Most of these show statistical treatment. Parallels are drawn from the much more extensive literature on the seed germination and development of epiphytic orchids. It also contains useful summaries on fertilization, optimum excision and maturity of these terrestrials, following pollination. There are data on time of germination based on observations when these terrestrial seedlings have emerged in the wild. Symbiotic germination of these orchids include effects of seed sterilization and cold stratification. Other chapters treat fungi isolations and identity and physiological properties of orchid endophytes, as well as orchid regulatory effects due to their phytoalexins. A chapter on the life history of these terrestrials denotes the time span of plant emergence above ground, first flowering and half-life. These chapters include many excellent photomacrographs and micrographs. A most useful section of the book (122 pp.) is devoted to detailed description of 36 genera of Northern Hemisphere terrestrial orchids in alphabetic order. These descriptions include life history, endophytes, seed storage and survival, germination in culture, and status of cultivation. Appendices deal with formulas of nutrient substrates cited in the text, orchid genera and their synonyms and fungi. The book can be recommended to all those working and/or interested in terrestrial orchids of the Northern Hemisphere. — Robert Ernst, Develop-mental and Cell Biology, University of California, Irvine
Tropical Forests: Management and Ecology A. E. Lugo and C. Lowe, Editors. 1995. xiv + 461 pp. ISBN 0-387-94320-X (cloth, US $ 98.00). Springer-Verlag New York, P. O. Box 19386, Newark, NJ 07195-9386. —The goal of the editors and contributors to this volume, the 112th in Springer-Verlag's Ecological Studies series, is to illustrate the relevance of ecological research to tropical forest management. While linkages between research and management of tropical forests should be self- evident, the numerous papers in this book illustrate that these linkages are of uneven strength, and that much more interaction between ecologists and foresters is needed if tropical forests are to weather the storms brought on by intensive human activities.
The papers in this volume were all presented at the 50th anniversary symposium of the USDA Forest Service's Institute of Tropical Forestry in Puerto Rico (now known as the International Institute of Tropical Forestry [IITF]). These papers are grouped into four sections: an introduction and problem statement (3 chapters); an overview of long-tern research in Puerto Rican forests (7 chapters); a section laying out areas for research in need of increased focus in tropical forests in general (4 chapters); and a general agenda for future research (3 chapters). This symposium was held in 1989, but due to the intervention of Hurricane Hugo and the Gulf War, both of which put unexpected demands on the two editors, publication was delayed until last year. The impact of this delayed publication is more apparent in the more synthetic chapters that form the last two sections of the book than in the opening papers that focus on long-term (and pre-Hurricane Hugo) reesearch at the Luquillo Experimental Forest (LEF) in Puerto Rico.
Ariel Lugo sets the tone for the volume in his introductory chapter, `Tropical forests: their future and our future'. He clearly presents both worst-case and best-case scenarios for the world's tropical forests, and lays out a balanced approach for long-term successful management of tropical forests. Lugo is generally optimistic about the prospects for effective management of the world's tropical forests, and this optimism is reflected in Frank Wadsworth's paean to the accomplishments of the IITF during the last half-century. The other introductory chapter, by J. P. Lanly on the status of tropical forests, largely has been superseded by the Food and Agriculture Organization's (FAO) 1995 publication: Forest Resources Assessment 1990 - Tropical Countries (unfortunately already out of print).
The accomplishments of the IITF are the result of a sustained level of careful long-term research on population and ecosystem dynamics of the forests in Puerto Rico. These studies are summarized in the second and largest section of the book. While the bulk of research attention has focused on the tabonuco (Dacryodes excelsa), palm (Prestoea montana), and cloud forests of the LEF (summarized in chapters by Lugo & Scatena; Weaver; Lugo, Bokkestijn & Scatena; McCormick; Taylor, Silander, Waide & Pfeiffer), the dry forests and forest plantations have not been neglected (chapters by Murphy, Lugo, Murphy & Nepstad; and Francis, respectively). The papers on the LEF projects provide the base-line from which recovery of this forest following the passage of Hurricane Hugo will be assessed. As such, they are an invaluable historical record of the ecology of this forest. The synthesis of research on the Guānica dry forest is simlarly vaulable; This 4,000 ha stand on Puerto Rico's southwest coast represents about 4% of the original extent of dry forest on the island, and is one of only two subtropical dry forests protected within Biosphere Re-serves. The analysis of forest plantations in Puerto Rico, however, is less satisfying. The emphasis is principally on exotic timber species, and no analysis of the relative merits of using exotic vs. native species is attempted.
<left>
</left>
The seven chapters in the final two sections of the book generally are unsatisfying, and, with one exception, don't really address the section topics. Within the section on `Research areas that require increased focus in the tropics', Ernesto Medina discusses the interface between physiological ecology of trees and foerst management; Peter Grubb reviews mineral nutrition in rain forests; John Terborgh rehashes large mammal and bird diversity in neotropical forests and reiterates the 'key-stone plant resource' hypothesis; and Howard Odum attempts to lay out a scheme for placing tropical forest systems within a `human economy'. The chapters by Medina, Grubb, and Terborgh reflect the state-of-thescience in 1989, but a lot has happened since then that is not contained in these chapters. It is unfortunate that there was apparently no opportunity to update these chapters before publication. Odum runs through twelve `minimodels' of tropical forest systems and their inter-faces with human economic systems to illustrate changing patterns of forest use and suggest policy recommendations for sustainable forest management and economic development. Odum uses the EMERGY currency (energy of one kind required directly and inderectly to produce a product) in all of his models. The absence of data with which to test his models, and the leaps of faith required of the reader to accept the main messages that are otherwise buried in jargon make this chapter the least accessible in the volume. Despite the fact that these four chapters are supposed to indicate research areas in need of increased research focus, it's not apparent from any of these chapters why these areas need increased attention.
The final section is meant to provide directions for future research in tropical forests. Only the closing chapter by Stephen Hubbell provides such direction, however. Hubbell lays out a convincing research agenda that could broadly link ecological research and forest management in tropical forests. As with the earlier chapters, however, it would be useful to know which of these agenda items have been addressed in the last 7 years. The chapters by T. C. Whitmore, and Arturo G6mez-Pompa & David Brainbridge focus more on encouraging scientists to be conservation advocates and less on re-search. While this is a laudable goal (and is discussed and debated at length in the pages of the journal Conservation Biology), it is hardly a `direction for future research in tropical forests'.
Overall, this volume is a mixed bag. It is most useful as a historical chronical of the IITF and a pre-Hurricane Hugo synthesis of research and dynamics in the LEF. As an agenda for future research and management in tropical forests, however, it reflects more the 'arrogance of humanism' ("a supreme faith in human reason - its ability to confront and solve the many problems that humans face, its ability to rearrange both the world of nature and the affiars of men and women so that human life will prosper": Ehrenfeld [1981]) than the humility needed to conserve and manage tropical forests in the face of vast uncertainty (Ludwig, Hilborn, and Walters. 1993). — Aaron M. Ellison, Department of Biological Sciences, Mount Holyoke College.
Literature Cited
Ehernfeld, D. 1981. The arrogance of humanism. Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK.
Ludwig, D., R. Hilborn, and C. J. Walters. 1993. Uncertainty, resource exploitation and conservation: lessons from history. Science 260: 17-18; 36.
<left>
</left>
Ethnobotany. Evolution of a Discipline. Richard Evans Schultes & Siri von Reis, eds. 1995. ISBN 0-931146-28-3 (cloth US$49.95) 414 pp. Dioscorides Press, The Haseltine Building, 133 S.W. Second Avenue, Suite 450, Portland, OR 97204, USA.—This book is a series of compendiums covering various aspects of ethnobotany or plant and human interactions. The number of papers in this field have increased exponentially over the last 20 years and encompass many aspects of life science including botany, agronomy, pharmacology, psychology, anthropology, sociology, as well as such fields as history, geography, politics, and religion. The 36 articles presented are mostly original contributions. Several of the articles present new data while others review current literature within their specific discipline. Authors of the various papers provide a global perspective hailing from 14 countries. Many of the most recognizable names in the field are present.
The book is divided into 10 chapters or parts covering a broad spectrum of scientific and academic skill. Each part is prefaced by an overview of 1-3 pages defining the particular discipline and its relationship to the field of ethnobotany. The first part is entitled "General Ethnobotany" and is a series of 5 articles that attempt to define the field in lieu of the avalanche of studies being reported. It becomes very clear that ethnobotany is in a period of rapid evolution. Ethnobotanists are increasingly working within many disciplines and fields of study to conduct their research. It is also apparent that inhabitants of the tropics (where most ethnobotanical studies are conducted) are becoming an inherent and essential part of the research both from the translation of knowledge of native species and environs, to helping to shape long range ethical, commercial, and political policy.
Other topics covered include such diverse disciplines as ethnobotanical conservation (3), education (2), geography (7), sociology (1 ), history (3) and archeology (2), ethnopharmacology (10), and contributions to general botany, crop improvement and ecology (3). The articles are well written and edited, and for the most part very informative. This book is a must for scholars in this field. It is a gold mine for literature references on almost every aspect of ethnobotany. I do feel, however, that it is written at a level that may not be appropriate for most undergraduate courses. It will certainly prove useful to graduate students and researchers in ethnobotany and
51
those scholars with an interest in this field. One comes away with the impression that ethnobotany is rapidly expanding in all directions. It would be difficult to escape the conclusion that the future of this field will be highly dependent on interdisciplinary collaboration. Overall, the editors did a splendid job in presenting the breadth and depth of this exciting field.— Ronald A. Balsamo, Chatham College, Pittsburgh
Plants and Their Names - A Concise Dictionary Roger Hyam and Richard Pankhurst. 1995. ISBN 0-19-866189-4 (cloth US$29.95) 545 pp. Oxford University Press, 200 Madison Ave, New York NY 10016 — Plants And Their Names is the new plant dictionary written by Roger Hyam and Richard Pankhurst of the Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh and recently published by Oxford University Press. The book boasts "16,000 of the more commonly occurring scientific and vernacular names." The book also contains a brief introduction explaining basic plant taxonomy and a rudimentary glossary. The book does not, however, contain pronunciation guides for plant names.
Formerly, I used a combination of two books for referencing plant names, their meanings, and origins: Coombes's Dictionary of Plant Names (1985, Timber Press) which is primarily a guide for pronunciation, and The Plant-Book , the exhaustive technical dictionary of the higher plants by D.J. Mabberly (1993, Cambridge University Press). 1 used these two books as a comparative basis by which to review Plants And Their Names.
I randomly picked plant names from The Plant-Book and then looked-up a few of my favorites as I came across them in any of the three books. Some of the taxa I used for comparison included Euphorbia, the Trigoniaceae, Buxus, Trillium, Kalmia, Magnolia, Bensoniella, Piper, and Viscum. In every instance, Plants And Their Names presented a much more detailed, lengthy and interesting text than The Dictionary Of Plant Names. In several instances, The Dictionary Of Plant Names did not provide an entry for rarer genera. The fact that Plants And Their Names has 338 more pages than The Dictionary Of Plant Names (207 pages) is one obvious reason for the discrepancy between the two volumes.
Plants And Their Names definitely does not contain the detailed technical information of The Plant-Book nor does it contain a pronunciation guide one might expect to find in a dictionary (though botanical pronunciation does seem open to debate among professionals). I have found, however, that the notes on etymology and medicinal and industrial applications makes Plants And Their Names more of a pleasure to simply thumb through than either of the other two books. It is for this reason that I think Plants And Their Names should be popular among the wider audience of people interested in plants, as well as a valuable addition to the library of the more serious botanist. — Shane Latimer. Tulane University
Botany in India: History and Progress, Vol. I Johri, B. M., ed. 1994 ISBN 1-886106-04-5 (cloth US$85.00) 521 pp. and Botany in India: History and Progress, Vol. II Johri, B. M., ed. 1994 ISBN 1-886106-05-3 (cloth US$80.00) 480 pp. Science Publishers, 52 LaBombard Road North, Lebanon, NH 03766. —The Hindu myth of Brahma, the Creator, emerging from a lotus flower exemplifies India's ancient tradition of recognizing plants as a source of human life. The use of medicinal plants is well documented in the Rigveda and Ayurveda, written about 6,500 years ago, and the utilitarian value of many plants was known to people living on the Indian subcontinent as early as 4,500 years ago. Although a systematic survey of plants in India was done in 400 B.C., the development of modern botanical practices were begun by Europeans in the 15th century mainly for the economic exploitation of plants. Hortus Malabaricus, in l2 volumes and 794 plates, was published by the Dutch Governor of Malabar, Heinrich van Rheede tot Drakenstein, an amateur botanist, and used by Linnaeus as the basis of naming many Indian plants. Koenig, a pupil of Linnaeus, went to India in 1768 and introduced the Binomial System of Nomenclature. Botany in India reviews the history and progress of botany in India during the past 100 years with only passing references to ancient episodes such as mentioned above. The progress of botany in India has been reviewed previously for various periods, viz., for the periods 1910-1935, 1939-1950, until 1962, and 1963-1972.
The main purpose of these two volumes is to bring the botanical achievements of Indian botanists to the attention of the younger generation of teachers and students in India. The volumes are divided in 39 chapters (24 in Volume I and 15 in Volume II) written by specialists in various fields. Maintaining a uniform standard in such compilations is always difficult, but the editor has successfully kept an interesting style throughout the book. Each volume begins with photographs of the twenty-two botanists of India, including two British botanists, to whom the book is dedicated.
The chapters of both volumes are grouped under the following major themes for this review: plant science history (chapter 1), plant exploration (2), medicinal plants (3), plant diseases and their causes (4-7), lower plants (8-12 and 21-24), fungi and plant diseases (13-19), lichens (20), gymnosperms (26-27), angiosperms (27-31), genetics, physiology, biochemistry, and molecular biology (32-37), ecology (38), and paleobotany (39).
The first two chapters tell a fascinating story of plant science history and plant exploration in India which began when Bhikshu Atreya asked Jivaka, in 400 BC, to collect, identify and describe all the plants growing within 36 miles of the University of Taxila. In the 19th century, Europeans enthusiastically collected plants in India as amateur botanists. J. D. Hooker's Flora of British India (7 volumes; 1872-1897) is based on these collections. Today the Botanical Survey of India has nine regional centers that generate numerous publications.
52
Chapter Three follows the use of plants in India for medicinal and other utilitarian purposes beginning 2,500 - 3,000 years ago when the Indian physician, Charak, described medicinal applications of about 350 plants. Several medicines have been developed from plants which were in common use among country folks at that time. India started cultivating plants for medicinal purposes in the 19th century. Quinine, used for curing malaria, is extracted from Cinchona that was introduced into plantations in India. Since pharmaceutical manufacturers now generally synthesize medicines in developed countries, the cultivation of medicinal plants is now in decline. However, India is developing research in the traditional Ayurvedic and Unani medical systems which use plant parts in preparing medicines.
The development of plant pathology in India is rather recent. The progress made in India in the study of mollecutes, viruses and bacteria, and the various diseases caused by them, are discussed in detail. Algal research in India has been largely confined to the study of the morphology and taxonomy of freshwater algae with almost no research on Pyrrophyta which generally includes unicellular marine dinotlagelfates.
Systematic research on fungi was initiated at the beginning of the 20th century after earlier isolated studies. Most of such work is still limited to taxonomy. The infection "Madura foot" or Maduromycosis, caused by the fungus Madurella naycetomi, was named in 1874 after Madurai in South India where a British medical officer first identified the infection in people who did not wear shoes. In the 1930s, Berberis was identified as an alternate host for black wheat rust. Plant galls, localized outgrowths of various host organs in which host cells are stimulated to excessive growth by parasites, are economically useful as the tannic acid from galls is used in making permanent inks. The United States Treasury and the Bank of England use oak galls in ink formulae to prevent forgery.
The study of lichens is about 50 years old in India and has generally been limited to taxonomy. It has been observed that while some lichens die due to atmospheric pollution, others flourish in similar environments. The study of lower plant groups in India was started in the latter part of the 19th century by Europeans who collected, described and cataloged taxa. After India's independence in 1947, various centers for plant study were instituted and the study of plants accelerated with the reorganization of the Botanical Survey of India. the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, and the University Grants Commission.
The Forest Research Institute was established in 1904 to tap forest resources in India and has contributed immensely to plant research. Gymnosperms occupy a great part of montane India and are prized as sources of timber, resin, essential oils, and paper pulp. The first two chapters of the second volume review studies done in India on morphology, systematics, reproductive biology, and morphogenesis of gymnosperms.
Five chapters are devoted to various aspects of angiosperms. Since the first paper on floral morphology, an important part of angiosperm taxonomy, appeared in 1933, several research centers have been active in such angiosperm research. Research on angiosperm embryology, begun in the early 1920s in Bangalore and Allahabad, progressed under Professor P. Maheshwari, founder of the School of Embryology, University of Delhi, in 1949. In 1950, studies began on pollen physiology and pollen-pistil interaction in order to exploit the full reproductive potential of economically important plants. Studies on pollen morphology (palynology) in India began in the 1950s and proliferated in numerous research centers in the 1960s. Pollen of several floras have been described. A coordinated national program on aeropalynology commenced in 1979. Cytological research began in the late 1920s and the first chromosome count in India was made in cotton in 1929. The advent of squashing and hydroxyquinoline treatment techniques spurred research in cytology and cytogenetics in the 1950s. Research on genetics of wild and cultivated plants has proliferated recently. Genetic diversity and its role in the improvement of cereals, pulses and oil seeds is reviewed in a separate chapter.
The progress in the study of physiology, biochemistry and molecular biology during the past 100 years in India is reviewed in six chapters (32-37). J. C. Bose, primarily a physicist, pioneered research in plant physiology in the first three decades of the 19th century. He founded the Bose Research Institute in Calcutta in 1917 and spent his life at this institute exploring plant physiology. Research in plant biochemistry was developed in the Indian Institute of Science founded in Bangalore in 1911. Scientists of the Imperial (now Indian) Agricultural Research Institute (founded in Bihar in 1905 and moved to New Delhi in 1936) developed significant research in the fields of plant water relation and crop yield, nitrogen metabolism, photoperiodism, and plant biochemistry. Research on genome organization in angiosperms has been sporadic and is still in its infancy. The significance of plant tissue culture was realized in India in the mid-1950s. The National Facility for Plant Tissue Culture Repository was established at the National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources of the Indian Agricultural Research Institute. When in vitro culture of plant tissues and organs was started during the 1950s, attention was focused on production of secondary plant metabolites due to the demand for natural products for pharmaceuticals. Although the roots of ecology and conservation lie in ancient Indian literature, the field of ecology in India started to develop in the second decade of the 19th century, made rapid progress in the late 1940s, and grew rapidly in the 1970s. Modern ecological practices in India were largely founded by F. R. Bharucha, R. Misra and G. S. Puri in the 1950s. Misra and Puri founded the International Society for Tropical Ecology and the journal Tropical Ecology was first published in 1960. The main problems facing Indian ecologists today are the loss of
53
biological diversity, degradation of ecosystems, and global change due to industrialization. Ecosystem analyses and modelling, conservation and evolutionary ecology, restoration ecology, ecology of global change, and ecological economics are the main areas of future research and training.
Paleobotanical research started in India with the establishment of the Geological Survey of India in 1847. Birbal Sahni undertook paleobotanical research with great vigor when he joined Lucknow University in 1921. In 1946, he founded the institute now known as the Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeobotany, Lucknow, which is the main center in India for research on paleobotany and palynology.
In India, botanical studies progressed in two phases. First, botanical collection and description of floras was conducted fervently during the British rule. The second phase commenced after India's independence with the establishment of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research and other research institutions.
Both volumes are devoid of figures, charts, and illustrations. Most chapters have an interesting style of narrating the progress in their respective field. Synoptic biographies of the botanists portrayed in the volumes would have been interesting for both teachers and students. Errors and omissions are few and the editor deserves congratulations on assuming such an extensive task and completing it so admirably. All libraries should have a copy of these volumes available in their reference section. — Satish K. Srivastava (Geology, U.S.C) 3054 Blandford Drive Rowland Heights, California
<left>
</left>
The Book of Rhododendrons. Marianna Kneller.
1995. ISBN 0-88192-322-2 (Cloth US $45) 160 pp. Timber Press, 133 S.W. Second Ave., Suite 450, Portland, OR 97204 — This 25 by 34 cm volume contains 55 single-page and nine double-page colorplates by Kneller, who is an award winning artist-in-residence at Exbury Gardens. Rhododendron enthusiast, Lionel de Rothschild, created Exbury Gardens and many notable rhododendron hybrids.
The page of text that accompanies all but two of the single plates is by one of over 50 rhododendron experts or enthusiasts, including rhododendron book authors Peter Cox, Roy Lancaster, David Leach, and Harold Greer. Each essay describes the illustrated subsection, section, or subgenus typically giving details of the plant's discovery, cultivation, and native habitat and sometimes including the author's personal experiences with the plant. One annoying aspect is that some authors talk mainly about other species rather than about the one illustrated. Brief biographies of each contributor are included at the end of the volume along with an extensive list of parks and gardens with rhododendron collections, rhododendron society addresses, a partial rhododendron species list, glossary, bibliography, and index.
The book seems to try to appeal to both rhododendron experts, who would be interested in the taxonomic details and meticulous botanical illustrations, and average gardeners, who would need the glossary and appreciate the list of rhododendron gardens and society addresses. Both audiences should appreciate the engaging text by experts who know the plants and often relate personal experiences. Major Thomas Spring-Smyth de-scribes his birthday encounter with R. campan Mat-um and grazing yaks in an alpine meadow in East Nepal. Novices and experts alike can appreciate the color plates but novices may be confused by the emphasis on the complex taxonomy. The book sometimes confuses itself. The foliage of R. exirnium is illustrated in one plate and discussed on page 22, yet R. exinaium in the index refers the reader to R. falconeri ssp. eximiurn. The index has some major omissions. For example, it does not refer to color plates of R. ponticum on page 2 and R. crassum on page 7.
The plates are divided into three parts based on Rhododendron subgenera: 1. subgenus Hymenanthes, 2. subgenus Rhododendron, and 3. several subgenera of the azalea-type rhododendrons. Each of the three parts begins with a page of line drawings of flowers. Each color plate shows the entire 8-month growing cycle including a flower bud, blooming shoot, dissected flower, expanding leaves, and fruit. Lowercase letters label the various parts. There are also ten species illustrated by small line drawings, each with a brief description by the author. Most color plates contain one species but five show two or three species. Unfortunately, plates with more than one species do not indicate which is which. Also, the scale of the plates is not made clear. The automatic assumption is that the flowering shoot is life size. However, the last page raises doubt by indicating that the original paintings were either 55 by 38 or 39 by 38 cm.
The nine, double-page plates each show the nonflowering shoots of three to six species and are bound together after the third part. A page and a half of text briefly describes the great diversity of rhododendron leaf morphology illustrated on the double plates. Each species' subgenus, section, series, and subseries is given in the text for the single plates, but these details are not provided for the double plates. However, the double prints have the species names on the plate, while the single prints do not. Having the species name on the print would be especially desirable if the prints are eventually framed. The single plates are designed for framing because they lack page numbers. The double prints have page numbers and would be difficult to frame. Unfortunately, the single prints are slightly below the 28 by 36 cm of standard frames sold in the U.S. which would make framing more difficult. — David R. Hershey, Biology/Horticulture Department, Prince George's Community College, Largo, MD
54
Wisterias: A Comprehensive Guide. Peter Valder. 1995. ISBN 0-88192-318-4 (Cloth US $32.95) 160 pp. Timber Press, 133 S.W. Second Ave., Suite 450, Portland OR 97204 — Billed as the first book exclusively devoted to wisterias in a European language, this volume was written by an Australian soil scientist and horticulturist with 40 years experience growing wisterias. The first two chapters provide an introduction to wisteria classification, identification, life cycle, and morphology. Line drawings provide a clear key to structures of leaf, flower, raceme, and seed. The bulk of the book is then devoted to three chapters each examining one of the three main groups of wisteria species, American, Chinese, and Japanese. All species and cultivars are thoroughly de-scribed and illustrated with wisteria cultivars of hybrid or unknown provenance in a separate chapter. Although not in the genus Wisteria, a chapter is devoted to several species of the so-called summer wisterias (Millettia species) because of their similar morphology. A chapter on cultivation provides details on propagation, pruning, production of new cultivars, and pests and diseases. The final chapter gives the author's choice of the top ten wisteria cultivars and the best cultivars for particular uses, such as for pergolas, for walls, for scent, as shrubs, as standards, for bonsai, for autumn color, and for seed pods. A two-page glossary, a list of about 100 references, and an index complete the text.
The 100-plus superb color photos of blooming wisterias are mostly by the author who visited wisterias on four continents. A nice touch are old black and white wisteria photos appearing with color photos of the same plant. For example, a 1914 photo of the famous wisteria at Ushijima, Japan, by Ernest H. Wilson, is next to a 1991 photo by the author at the same spot. There are also illustrations of centuries-old wisteria paintings and even Tiffany stained glass wisteria lamps. The only weakness of the photos is that closeups of individual racemes and seeds lack an indication of scale in their captions.
A major thrust of the book is an attempt to clear up some of the nomenclatural confusion in the genus. V alder makes a case to reduce the number of species from the 9 or 10 recognized by horticultural references like Hortus Third and Wyman's Gardening Encyclopedia to just five. He also attempts to clear up the widespread confusion in cultivar names, often adopting new cultivar names in the process.
Among the notable omissions are a discussion of wisteria cold hardiness, any details on soil texture, soil pH, and fertilization requirements, and a thorough consideration of wisteria toxicity. Valder concludes that W. sinensis flowers are not poisonous, but the AMA Hand-book of Poisonous and Injurious Plants is emphatic that all parts of the plant are toxic, including the flowers. Another notable omission from the reference list i s Michael Dirr's Manual of Woody Landscape Plants, the standard U.S. college text.
The text should appeal to botanists and gardeners alike because of its focus on the taxonomic and horticultural history of wisteria, including quotes on wisteria by famous botanists such as Robert Fortune and John Lindley. Botanically, wisterias are notable because the clockwise twining of W. floribunda distinguishs it from the counterclockwise twining of the other species. Also fascinating is the wisteria's cultural importance in Japan, where at least seven old wisterias have been declared National Treasures and are popular tourist at-tractions. The National Treasure wisteria at Ushijima is estimated to be 1200 years old and covers 700 square meters of trellis. In 1920 when it covered about half that area, it was estimated to have 80,000 fragrant racemes, each up to a meter or more long. One wonders what Washington D.C. might look like today if Japan had given the U.S. a gift of wisteria instead of cherry trees. — David R. Hershey, Biology/Horticulture Department, Prince George's Community College, Largo, MD
<left>
</left>
Molecular and Cellular Aspects of Plant Reproduction. R. J. Scott and A. D. Stead, eds. 1994. ISBN 0-521-45525-1 (cloth) 315pp. Society for Experimental Biology Seminar Series 55, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK — The articles in this volume represent an eclectic set of loosely related topics including five on flower senescence, four on genes in floral morphogenesis, five on pollen and anthers and one each on ovules and brown algae. The value of an article to an individual reader will be quite varied. Three are particularly good reviews: a thoughtful comparison by R. Scott of hypotheses concerning chemical composition of sporopollenin, a well-organized, highly accessible summary of gene expression in male gametophyte development by D. Twell, and an overview of strategies of flower senescence by Stead and Van Doorn, followed by a second piece by the same two authors.
The majority of articles include a brief review followed by an example of recent results, but without full methods, e.g., floral organogenesis in Petunia (V an Tunen et al.), Y-chromosome mutants of Melandrium (Barbacar and Negrutiu), anther-specific glucanases (Scott's group), and ovule cDNA clones (Ferrant, Van Went, Kries). Other were unnecessarily brief or narrow in scope, e.g., pollen physiology (Heslop-Harrisons), self-incompatibility in Papaver (Franklin et al.), floral morphogenesis in cauliflower (Jordan, Anthony, James). The coverage is not widely representative of the field. Nearly half the articles are from the Universities of Leicester and Bir-
55
mingham, with the rest from around the world. Of the 39 authors, 20% are from Birmingham alone.
I question the usefulness of such uneven cover-age. Many molecular aspects of plant reproduction are not included. One might want a copy of a pertinent individual chapter, but the overview is so incomplete that it has limited use, e.g., for graduate students looking for interesting projects. Get it on interlibrary loan. — Darlene Southworth, Department of Biology, Southern Oregon State College, Ashland
<left>
</left>
DNA Fingerprinting in Plants and Fungi. Weising, K., H. Nybom, K. Wolff and W. Meyer. 1994. ISBN 0-8493-8920-8, 322 pp. CRC Press, 2000 Corporate Blvd. NW, Boca Raton, Florida 3343 1 USA. — The discovery that DNA sequence repeat families could be utilized to provide genetic markers often variable enough to identify individual genotypes created broad new possibilities in organismal biology and forensics. Genetic "fingerprints" had the potential to provide a direct and accurate means to determine parentage, compare relatedness and estimate small genetic distances and thereby test hypotheses that had previously been outside the realm of genetic marker studies. Studies based on DNA fingerprinting are now common, almost hackneyed, in mammals and birds but highly variable DNA markers have been slower to arrive in the plant kingdom. The employment of DNA fingerprinting in plants faces unique methodological hurdles (particularly DNA extraction) and often requires a distinct set of probes and primers to detect highly variable repeats. The authors of this book addressed the need for better technical information with the intention of providing a "benchtop manual" containing plant and fungi specific DNA fingerprinting techniques in hopes that plant and fungal genetic research would be stimulated.
The authors take a very broad perspective on what constitutes a practical guide and consider both hybridization based methods (largely multilocus) and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) methods based on random primer sequences ("RAPiDs") under the label of DNA fingerprinting. Methods and progress in microsatellite cloning and PCR amplification are only briefly mentioned. The book begins with a basic explanation of types of DNA variation and methods used to measure such variation, a review of features of tandemly repeated DNA sequences, and an elementary description of PCR. Next is an abbreviated description of equipment and supplies necessary for molecular genetic studies and a basic description of several chemical and radiation hazards encountered in the laboratory procedures de-scribed. The "methodology" section begins after 40 pages of preliminary material and is the largest (over 100 pages) and most practical section of the volume. This section includes step-by-step protocols for DNA extraction, agarose gel electrophoresis and Southern blotting, probe labeling and hybridization, PCR protocols for arbitrary and simple sequence primers, as well as a section on the scoring and analysis of DNA fragment patterns. Following the methods is a section describing "applications" of fingerprinting. This includes examples of studies that have investigated genetic diversity, relatedness, paternity or phylogenetics of wild and cultivated plant species. The application section for fungi is oriented around identi tication of pathogeneic groups and the population genetics and phylogeny of commercially important groups. The book closes with a comparison of DNA markers to morphological and allozyme measures of genetic variation and some thoughts on emerging techniques in DNA typing and methods to increase the ease and accuracy of DNA fingerprinting. Appendices pro-vide taxonomic lists to studies where fingerprint markers have been used. Throughout the book content for plants takes precedence over that for fungi, with the sections concentrating on fungi being separate and wholly independent.
This book contains a great deal of information that is relevant to those developing or employing finger-print or RAPiD genetic markers in plants and fungi. The volume is valuable if for no other reason than its service to collect and describe plant and fungal DNA fingerprinting literature through 1993. The highly compartmental organization, redundancy and inclusion of too much elementary descriptive material reduce the book's ability to be a "benchtop" manual. However, the hook can serve as a reference for investigators presently involved in the types of studies it describes. The methodology section references a large number of plant DNA extraction methods, an especially important step in hybridization-based fingerprinting, and presents step-by-step protocols for four basic methods. The applications section provides background on what past studies have accomplished and gives some sense for what types of genetic analyses fingerprinting has successfully addressed. This review of plant and fungal fingerprinting studies is the most comprehensive to date. Unfortunately, the review of past studies lacks any attempt at a synthesis or a taxonomic organization of successful marker types. The statistical methodology section was a particularly weak point, providing only a superficial review of numerical measures and no guidance on appropriate application or pitfalls such as linkage or the absolute necessity of inheritance studies when using genetic markers to measure relatedness. The proper analysis of DNA fingerprinting data has been controversial and requires special attention if results are to be broadly accepted. The appendices aid in locating fingerprinting studies in taxonomic groups of interest but could be improved by including probe and primer sequences and whether variation was among individuals, populations or species.
The volume is targeted at those investigators who are new to DNA marker studies and require a
56
reference to all aspects of the process. But here lies the contradiction of the book's organization and my largest criticism. Several excellent and comprehensive laboratory manuals in molecular genetics exist that provide depth and breadth in explanations of basic techniques (e.g. Current Protocols in Molecular Biology, 1993. Ausubel, F.M., R. Brent, R. E. Kingston, D. D. Moore, J. G. Seidman, J. A. Smith, and K. Struhl. Greene Pub. Associates and Wiley-lnterscience, New York). The descriptions of basic techniques given in this book are not thorough enough to provide the background needed by a neophyte but are not brief enough to be used as a bench reference by an experienced investigator. The book would be better served by assuming that readers can learn basic techniques elsewhere. This would free the authors to concentrate on the unique aspects of plant and fungal fingerprinting, material the book already contains but that is obscured by too much basic content.
I would recommend this book as a reference to those actively involved in plant or fungal genetics re-search with fingerprints. I would also recommend the book to those developing fingerprinting methods in plants and fungi because it will be one source of information that may help in marker development. It will be of less interest to those not involved in the empirical details of finger-printing due to the lack of general themes in the review sections, — Matthew B. Hamilton, Smithsonian Institution, National Zoological Park, Washington, D. C.
<left>
</left>
Mycorrhiza. Structure, Function, Molecular Biology and Biotechnology. Edited by Ajit Varma and Bertold Hock. 1995. ISBN 0-387-58525-7 (cloth). Springer-Verlag, New York, Berlin, Heidelberg. — What's new in mycorrhizae research? The editors of this volume write that they were encouraged to present the book by "recent developments" in the field. And there are new developments to report. In genetics, physiology, systematics and elsewhere, there is much that is new in mycorrhizae research. But the reader is not encouraged. Do these developments go beyond technological advances? The book is a compendium of review papers, many of which were written by scientists working in agricultural laboratories or at agriculture schools. The authors tend to stress biotechnology rather than biology. The book is heavy on technical language which is difficult for specialists and opaque to the general reader. Blanket statements about the "state of the science" are not borne out by the research that is presented. One author writes: The taxonomy and systematics of fungi...are entering a new phase...and the value of traditional taxonomic characters is being questioned.
I have heard this hyperbole at dozens of talks. Usually it is posited as a substitute for solid knowledge of the organisms in question and their characters. I doubt whether this ejaculation is adequate basis for building a career in science or even for framing an hypothesis. Another author enlightens us:
It has become increasingly clear that the vast, expanding field of molecular biology will have a major impact on mycorrhizal studies.
To whom has it become increasingly clear? Of what clear value to science is something that is vast and expanding? To me this assertion represents the tail of technology wagging the dog of mycorrhizal studies.
There are good papers here, particularly by workers who have taken a broad view of mycorrhizal biology. They recognize the significance of the mycorrhizal symbiosis, and they try to circumscribe its many complexities. But many of the papers, especially those that focus on more reductionist problems, seem to ignore a basic fact: the mycorrhizal relationship is a symbiosis involving a plant and a fungus. This might seem an obvious statement, but it carries with it wide implications for investigative work. Fungi have peculiar lifestyles that are not shared by other organisms (for instance Rhizobium bacteria, which one author calls the "other" major group of mutualistic symbioses involving land plants. By the way, what about insect-plant relationships?). I pity readers who, tantalized by titles that promise "new and improved" technology, might struggle through this hook and never get an adequate handle on what mycorrhizae are!
Some of the contributions list little-known associations such as mycorrhizae in aquatic plants, but the papers are limited because they are basically literature reviews. Most of the papers highlight a limited number of associations, many of which are crop plants or fungi that have been traditionally included in the experimental literature. Pinus, Pisolithus, Pisum. Nothing new here. But where this book is lackluster in organismic diversity, it is spectacular in terminology. The editors and the first authors highlight a nomenclatural controversy over the use of the term VAM (vesicular-arbuscular mycorrhizae) vs. AM (arbuscular mycorrhizae). Is this the singular burning issue in mycorrhizae research? If so, let us move on. Abs and mAbs, pAbs and PEGs dominate many pages. I would have been happier if the authors made themselves understood. By contrast, a number of more traditional terms pepper the hook. Mycorrhizae are considered as "organs" in one paper. Elsewhere we read of "resting structures," "fruit bodies," and "propagules." Perhaps these terms point to the difficulty of studying and understanding fungi. They point to the painful truth that though we may find ourselves in an increasingly sophisticated technological environment, our understanding of the fungal lifestyle remains a crude one.
The book has a good bibliography, which we have come to expect in edited volumes of this sort. The contributed papers are a bit more diverse than I have let on. Certainly great effort was devoted to preparing a wide reaching work on up-to-date research on mycorrhizae.
57
There is much to be learned about them. Perhaps a collection of review pieces is the wrong place to ask for case studies. But case studies might have provided more flavor than we get in this volume. A few case studies might have provided a graduate student (or even an undergraduate) a chance to think, "Wow! Mycorrhizae are amazing!"
The diagrams, graphs, and photographs in this book are acceptable and in a few cases striking. The book is printed on annoying shiny paper. You cannot set the book flat on your table and read it. It must be propped up in order to avoid the reflective glare that is produced by overhead lighting. Unless we see another text on mycorrhizae in the near future this one will have to suffice, but one can hope for a more dynamic, holistic, thoughtful book about mycorrhizae to replace it. — Samuel Hammer, College of General Studies, Boston University
<left>
</left>
Modern Methods of Plant Analysis Vol.15: Alkaloids H.F. Linskens and J.F. Jackson, eds. 1994 ISBN 0-387-52738-9 (cloth US$196) 237 pp. Springer-Verlag, New York — Alkaloids have long been a focus of attention due to their profound physiological effects on mammalian systems, but their functional roles in the plants that produce them have often remained obscure (Robinson, 1991). Alkaloids provides an over-view of the latest techniques in alkaloid chemistry that will enhance our ability to fill gaps in that knowledge. Traditionally it has been possible to identify the presence of a known alkaloid using co-chromatography. However, because many alkaloids are present at low levels, this has required considerable amounts of plant material. The present volume shows that it is possible to structurally characterize alkaloids using less than 5 milligrams of pure alkaloid and that individual alkaloids may be characterized even from within complex mixtures. These techniques promise to further our understanding of biosynthetic pathways, insect detoxification mechanisms and the functional roles of alkaloids in plants.
The focus of the book is on methods: Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR), High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC), and Gas Chromatography (GC) are covered in considerable detail and smaller sections are devoted to Thin-Layer Chromatography (TLC), Mass Spectrometry (MS), and extraction. The NMR section is filled with all the latest acronyms for the acquisition of proton and carbon spectra (COSY, NOESY, HOHAHA, HETCOR, HMQC, HMBC, COLOC, INADEQUATE, DEPT, TOCSY, SIMBA, plus combinations), and if any of these methods are in your existing vocabulary then this book is likely to be of considerable use. If these terms are not familiar, then you may want to review basic NMR before delving into these chapters as the editors assume a relatively advanced level of knowledge. A broader introduction would have been most helpful. Because the NMR techniques outlined here are powerful, nondestructive, and require only small amounts of material, it will be well worth the review. I recommend (King & Williams, 1989a; King & Williams, 1989b; Williams & King, 1990a; Williams & King, 1990b) but there are many books and reviews available on the subject of NMR in alkaloid analysis.
Gas chromatography has also emerged as a useful tool in alkaloid analysis. GC has many advantages: it requires less material and is less expensive than NMR, it can be linked to MS to generate highly specific spectral fragment patterns, GC has short analysis times (30 minutes or less), and it can readily separate complex mixtures of most classes of alkaloid without derivatization. The main drawback is the destructive nature of GC detection. An example of the power of GC comes from the chapter on detection of alkaloids in environmental tobacco smoke; there. have been at least 3,875 individual components identified in tobacco smoke and airborne alkaloids can be detected in parts-per-trillion levels. This still leaves the problem of figuring out just what it all means and how to use this wealth of chemical data; the chapter effectively addresses these problems but does not resolve them.
A chapter on electrochemical detection of alkaloids in HPLC highlights recent advances in this mode of detection which make it superior to more typical UV or fluorescence detection. In the past, GC suffered from problems of thermal degradation making HPLC the prominent mode for alkaloid determinations. Recent improvements in GC have overcome degradation problems but electrochemical detection coupled with HPLC separation remains a viable system for alkaloids that can be oxidized or reduced, including aromatic, indole and tropane alkaloids.
This book will make an excellent addition to any institutional library but the treatment is overall of a highly specialized nature taking it out of the range of many plant biology research programs. I found the writing to be highly informative but at times overwhelming. The NMR methods described in this book are not for the faint of heart and for the most part require the aid of a Ph.D. chemist and sophisticated (and expensive) equipment the likes of which are to be found only in industry or major research institutions. The GC and HPLC methods are accessible to most chemical labs. Most chapters are geared toward solving problems of alkaloid detection and characterization in economically important plants such as tobacco, but connections to other taxa are regularly made. The final two chapters are a bit of a stretch and seem almost out of place with their in depth coverage of transformation of root cultures and the genetic analysis of Popover alkaloids. The information presented is consistently well referenced and the book is overall of high quality and well written. One notable lack is any systematic treatment of solid phase extraction (SPE) techniques which are highly suited to alkaloids and would be useful
58
in easily and rapidly generating samples of sufficient purity for many analyses.
This is the second incarnation of "Modern Methods of Plant Analysis," the original series being published between 1956 and 1964. The current series (16 volumes) attempts to bridge the gap between methods which were originally described in the biochemical, biophysical, and medical literature thus making them accessible to plant biologists. Each plant species may require some special modification of the described methods. To facilitate methods development, links to the original procedures are provided and authors generally describe their methods critically with hints as to their limitations. This volume serves as a standard of what can be achieved and should prove an excellent addition to the series. — Timothy Morton, Entomology, Pennsylvania State University
Literature Cited
King, R. W., & Williams, K. R. (1989a). The fourier transform in chemistry: Part 1. Nuclear magnetic resonance: Introduction. Topics in Chemical Instrumentation, 66(9), A213-A219.
King, R. W., & Williams, K. R. (1989b). The fourier transform in chemistry: Part 2. Nuclear magnetic resonance: The single pulse experiment. Topics in Chemical Instrumentation, 66(10), A243-A248.
Robinson, T. (1991). The Organic Constituents of Higher Plants: Their Chemistry and Interrelationships (6 ed.). North Amherst, MA: Cordus Press.
Williams, K. R., & King, R. W. (1990a). The fourier transform in chemistry - NMR: Part 3. Multiple-pulse experiments. Topics in Chemical Instrumentation, 67(4), A93-A99.
Williams, K. R., & King, R. W. (1990b). The fourier transform in chemistry -NMR: Part 4. Two-dimensional methods. Topics in Chemical Instrumentation, 67(5), Al25-A137.
<left>
</left>
Flora De Manantlān. J. Antonio Vazquez G., Ramōn Cuevas G., Theodore S. Cochran, Hugh H. Iltis, Francisco J. Santana M., and Luis Guzman H. 1995. ISSN 0833-1475 (paper US$45) Sida, Bot. Misc. 13: 1-312. Botanical Research Institute of Texas, 509 Pecan St., Fort Worth TX 76102. — Manantlān, Mexico is an impressive massif of the Sierra Madre Occidental overlooking the Pacific Ocean on its western flanks. It occupies about 140,000 ha (341,000 acres), forming a localized mountainous carbuncle in the southwesternmost portion of Jalisco just where it nestles up against the neighboring state of Colima. As circumscribed by the authors of this text, Sierra Manantlān varies in elevation from 400 to 2860 meters, encompassing a wide range of climatic variables, which permits the recognition of eight or more vegetational types, the latter concisely discussed by Vasquez and Cuevas in an account of the biogeography and plant communities and neatly illustrated by their Fig. 11, a colored plate showing the major vegetational types according to their dominants.
Of course, most workers interested in the biodiversity of tropical and subtropical America will need no introduction to this extraordinary biological preserve (it is now formally recognized as la Reserva de la Biosfera Sierra de Manantlān), for it is renown for harboring a putative ancestor of cultivated corn (maize), Zea diploperennis, not to mention yet other endemic species occurring on this "Noah's Ark" of North America. In-deed, the authors reckon the reserve to contain about 3000 taxa of vascular plants, of which about 30 are restricted to it, some of the latter (e.g., Magnolia iltisiana) remarkably distinct.
The text is a beautiful production and the Botanical Research Institute of Texas (BRIT) is to be congratulated for its attractive cover and format. This, in large measure, must reflect the talents of Barney L. Lipscomb, editor of the journal Sida, and its Botanical Miscellany, of which this is volume 13.
While I tip my hat to the editor and his accomplishments, ultimate kudos must go to the numerous workers and collaborators who gathered the data and put this in printable form. Six of these are listed on the front cover as editors. Nevertheless, the blood, guts, muscle and mucilage of this project must go to the many Mexican nationals involved in the field exploration and data assemblage. Still, I suspect that the sustaining spirit behind the enterprise has been Hugh H. Iltis, long time Professor of Botany and now Emeritus at the Univ. of Wisconsin. I have known this incorrigible creature for over 40 years now and I know of no one more interwrapt i n environmental sentience: concern and enthusiasm for things pristine, or in his case rabid biophilia. Off-the-wall upon occasion Hugh may appear, given the opportunity to hold forth on things environmental, full of bombast and zealotry, but never doubt his sincerity, a quality that drives him to care that this little biotic pool of biodiversity, Sierra Manantlān, might be preserved in perpetuity.
Sometimes Iltis can be sort of corny in his exuberances. Thus, in his final paragraph of his "Introduction" to this text (with T.S. Cochran), he reckons that
The better we get to know this biota, the more we shall be able to love it. And the greater our love, the greater our will to fight for its preservation. We must strive to be good ancestors to future generations, so that in centuries to come, Mexican boys and girls, and their American friends as well, will continue to enjoy the natural beauty of the Mexican landscape, and be empowered with a sense of wonder by the rich biota that adorns the mountains called Manantlān.
But that is what I like best in Hugh: his Kiwanas Club, child-like enthusiasm that draws us to his many causes, like them or not.
The Introductory chapter of this 312 page text, from which I quoted the above, is in English, the remaining chapters are in Spanish. In spite of the statement by Iltis and Cochran (p. 11) that "It is fair to say that except
59
for the Valley of Mexico, the Sierra de Manantlān has one of the most thoroughly explored floras in Mexico", the authors are quick to note that
This is a floristic checklist. Listed alphabetically within each family are all the vascular plant species that have been found growing in the wild in the Sierra de Manantlān Biosphere Reserve (Fig. 1) and certain contiguous corridors within its zone of influence ... Each entry gives the scientific name of the plant and cites one or more voucher specimens and its herbarium of deposition. Otherwise, little information is given—some common names, few synonyms, and not habitats. Thus, although not an identification book nor a vegetation study, this is, nevertheless, a convenient source of distributional and attitudinal data and should be of great value to anyone interested in Mexican biodiversity, which is great and wonderful indeed.
Thus the title ("Flora deManantldn") is some-what stretched, but it is really much more than a flora, thanks to the introductory chapters (92 pp) leading up to the checklist. This includes many beautiful colored plates of panoramic scenes and selected plant taxa. And it's true, painfully true, that there is yet to be published a modern comprehensive flora for a Mexican state or meaningful subdivision, other than that for the city of Mexico and its immediate surroundings.
There are currently many well-trained Mexican plant systematists who might elevate the present text into a "true" flora. What's needed is sufficient funding, private or public, to support such an endeavor. I urge the expenditure. An enlarged "Flora de Manantlān" might serve as a model for yet other studies of this nature.
Finally, I must confess that I cannot imagine any worker interested in the flora (and its dependent fauna) of Mexico not wanting to possess this text. It is beautifully composed, wonderfully edited and put to press with compassion — B.L. Turner, Department of Botany, University of Texas, Austin
<left>
</left>
Manual of Grasses. Rick Darke, Editor. 1994. ISBN 0-88192-300-1 (cloth US $39.95), xlvi + 169pp. Timber Press, Portland, OR 97204 — Despite a title that implies a general reference book on the grass family, this horticultural volume actually emphasizes the ornamental grasses that may be of most interest to gardeners and landscape designers. Although this could imply a rather narrow focus, a wide variety of grasses are covered along with "grass-like plants" (i.e. sedges, rushes, and cattails). According to the jacket sleave, this volume is based on the New Royal Horticultural Society's Dictionary of Gardening and provides a "fusion of what is current and best in botany and proven and practical in horticulture."
The book begins with a short Preface followed by an introduction that describes how grasses are enjoying a "renaissance" as gardeners look beyond flower color to "embrace the subler satisfactions of line, form, texture, and translucency that are characteristic of the lingering beauty of ornamental grasses." This section is full of such colorful phrases which may make the topic sound less Iike science and more like art to basic research botanists. There are a few misprinted, redundant lines of text here on three pages.
Next is a chapter on bamboos which have major importance in horticultural design. This chapter along with the remainder of the book is superbly illustrated with detailed line drawings. The editor is to be commended for the selection of botanical artists commissioned for this volume! The bamboo chapter is followed by a brief description of the plant families covered, a beautifully illustrated glossary, and a list of "grasses in the garden" categorized under headings like "foilage colour", "scent", "flowers", "drought tolerant", etc.
The remainder of the book (about 75%) consists of entries of specific genera arranged in alphabetical order. Each entry contains the meaning of the genus name (eg. Echinochloa comes from two Greek words that collectively mean "hedgehog grass"), a general description of the characteristics of the genus, tips on how to cultivate the plants, and an additional description of the characteristics of selected species in that genus. A climatic zone code indicates the temperature minima that may be tolerated by the species and thus provides a tool for determining where the species may best be grown. For many genera, an illustration shows a representative species of horticultural significance. There are some unexpected entries (eg. Cenchrus, Buchloe). In addition, although the Preface states that the manual does not include lawn grasses, there are entries for Lolium and Festuca (and others) which are both followed by species descriptions of important turfgrasses (eg. perennial ryegrass and red fescue). The book concludes with an index of popular names and a five page Bibliography that includes most of the major books on grass systematics and floras. About half of the pages in the Bibliography are devoted to bamboos.
This handsomely illustrated book will be of the greatest value to students of horticulture and individuals interested in growing select grasses for ornamental purposes. Other than the information on cultivation, the volume offers little more information than that found in any other grass manual (eg. Hitchcock's Manual of the Grasses of the U.S. [1950], Dover Publ., New York 10014). Unless they need to know how to cultivate grasses for research purposes, most systematists and ecologists with a special interest in the Poaceae will probably have minimal use for this particular manual.—Gregory P. Cheplick, Department of Biology, The College of Staten Island-City University of New York, Staten Island, New York
60
Only in Arkansas, A Study of the Endemic Plants and Animals of the State. H. W. Robison and R. T. Allen. 1995. xii + 121 pp. ISBN 1-55728-326-5 (cloth, US$42.00). The University of Arkansas Press, Fayetteville. — Only in Arkansas is a compilation of what is known about the taxonomy, geographical distribution, ecology, biology, geological history, and evolutionary relationships of the plants and animals thought to occur only within the political boundaries of the state. It is not "A study of the endemic plants and animals of the state" per se, as this subtitle might suggest.
The book consists of 11 chapters, a bibliography of 185 references cited in the text, and an index of mostly Latin and common names of organisms. Chapter one discusses some interesting biogeographical patterns that include plant and animal taxa native to Arkansas (not just the endemics) and ways in which these patterns may have developed. It even includes a nice, short section on continental drift. The primary focus of chapter two is on physiographic regions and the geological history of Arkansas. Each of the 11 endemic plant taxa is covered in chapter 3, and each of 106 endemic animal taxa in chapters 4-11. Thus, only 8 of the 88 pages devoted specifically to the state's endemic organisms are about plants.
One of the 11 plant taxa is a leafy liverwort (Plagiochila japonica subsp. cilliigera), and the other 10 (Arenaria muriculata, Carex bicknellii var. opaca, Delphinium newtonianum, Heuchera villosa var. arkansana, Mespilus canescens, Quercus shumardii var. acerifolia, Hydrophyllurn brownei, Cardamine angustata var. ouachitana, Galium arkansanum var. pubiflorum, and Polymnia cossatotensis) are angiosperms. According to the authors, the bryophyte and four of the flowering plants are known only from the type locality (but see below). Three of these endemic taxa only recently were described: Polymnia cossatotensis in 1989; Mespilus canescens in 1990; and Hydrophyllurn brownei in l 991. The only other known species of Mespilus is M. germanica of western Asia and southeast Europe (Phipps, J. B. 1990. Syst. Bot. 15: 26-32; Phipps, J. B. 1991. Syst. Bot. 16: 546-552).
At least one plant systematist has expressed doubt about the taxonomic validity of two of the varieties, Carex bicknellii var. opaca and Quercus shumardii var. acerifolia. Robison and Allen say that P. cossatotensis and Q. shumardii var. acerifolia are known only from the type localities. However, V. Bates and A. B. Pittman reported P. cossatotensis from one additional site (and county) in 1991 (A review of the status of Polymnia cossatotensis Pittman and Bates or the "Cossatot Leafcup," unpublished report submitted to the Arkansas Natural Heritage Commission, Little Rock, 1 January 1991), and G. P. Johnson reported Q. shumardii var. acerifolia from two additional sites (and counties) in 1992 (Castanea 57: 150-151, 1992).
Ninety-nine of the 106 thought-to-be endemic animal taxa are invertebrates. More than 50% of these are known only from the type locality. Five of the seven vertebrates are fishes, and two are amphibians. The invertebrate group with the largest number of endemic taxa (33) is the millipedes. Crayfishes are the second largest endemic group; of the 56 taxa in Arkansas, 15 are endemic to the state.
Several of the endemic invertebrate taxa be-long to interesting biogeographical patterns; four examples follow. (1) The myriapod genus Cibularia contains two species: one is endemic to the Ouachita Mountains in Arkansas, and the other is known only from central New Mexico. (2) The pseudoscorpion Pseudozaona occidentalis is endemic to Arkansas. Of the three other species in the genus, one occurs in Costa Rice, one in Mexico, and one in Kentucky. (3) Two species of the insect genus Occasjapyx are endemic to Arkansas, and the other four occur on the U.S. west coast. (4) Helicopsyche limnella, an insect endemic to Arkansas, belongs to a group that primarily is tropical and subtropical; it is related most closely to H. mexicana found in Mexico.
Only in Arkansas is a very attractive and sturdily-bound book. It is well illustrated with lots of line drawings and (mostly good quality) color photographs. The authors have done a good, scholarly job of putting the Arkansas endemic taxa (especially the invertebrates) into a broad geographical-evolutionary perspective. Thus, the book will be of interest to biologists spatially far removed from Arkansas. I recommend it for purchase by college and university libraries and by individuals and institutions (e.g., state chapters of The Nature Conservancy and state heritage programs) concerned with rare plant and animal taxa.
This is not a coffee-table book. — Jerry M. Baskin, University of Kentucky, Lexington
<left>
</left>
61
<left> </left>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, call or write as soon as you notice the book of interest in this list, be-
cause they go quickly!—Ed.
* = book in review or declined for review ** = book reviewed in this issue
Ecological
The Ecology and Biogeography of Nothofagus Forests Veblen, Thomas T., Robert S. Hill, & Jennifer Read, eds. 1996. ISBN 0-300-06423-3 (cloth US$75.00) 403 pp. Yale University Press, PO Box 209040, New Haven CT 06520.
A Manual of California's Vegetation Types Sawyer, John O. & Todd Keeler-Wolf 1995. ISBN 0-943460-26-3 (paper US$39.00, cloth US$55.00) 471 pp. California Native Plant Society, 1722 J Street, Suite 17, Sacramento CA 95814
Krakaatau: the Destruction and Reassembly of an Island Ecosystem Thornton, Ian 1996. ISBN 0-674-50568-9 (cloth US$39.95) 346 pp.Harvard University Press, 79 Garden Street, Cambridge MA 02138.
Economic Botany
Encyclopedia of Common Natural Ingredients Used in Food, Drugs, and Cosmetics Leung, Albert & Steven Foster 1996. ISBN 0-471-50826-8 (cloth US$150.00) 649 pp. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 605 Third Avenue, New York NY 10158-0012
*Medicinal Resources of the Tropical Forest: Biodiversity and its Importance to Human Health Balick, Michael J., Elaine Elisabetsky & Sarah A. Laird, eds. 1996. ISBN 0-231-10171-6 440pp. (paper US$35.00, cloth US$75.00) Columbia University Press, 562 West 113th Street, New York NY 10025
Plants, People, and Culture: The Science of Ethnobotany Balick, Michael J. & Paul Alan Cox 1996. ISBN 0-7167-5061-9 (cloth US$ 32.95) 228 pp. W.H. Freeman and Company Publishers, 41 Madison Avenue, New York NY 10010.
Small Farmers and the Protection of the Water-sheds: The Experience of Jamaica since the 1950s Edwards, David T. 1995. ISBN 976-8125-20-9 (paper J$175.00, US$3.00) 100 pp., Canoe Press, The University of the West Indies, 1 A Aqueduct Flats, Mona, Kingston 7, Jamaica, W.I.
Recognizing and Controlling Nematode Damage on Some Crops Grown in Jamaica Hutton, Dave George. 1993. ISBN 976-8125-00-4 (paper J$145.00, US$3.00) 40 pp., Canoe Press, The University of the West Indies, IA Aqueduct Flats, Mona, Kingston 7, Jamaica, W.I.
General
Green Nature/Human Nature: The Meaning of Plants in Our Lives Lewis, Charles A. 1996. ISBN 0-252-06510-7 (cloth US$32.95, paper US$14,95) 149 pp., University of Illinois Press, 1325 South Oak Street, Champaign IL 61820.
Historical
Charles Darwin's Letters: A Selection Burkhardt, Frederick, ed. 1996. ISBN 0-521-56212-0 (cloth US$21.95) 272 pp., Cambridge University Press, 40 West 20th Street, New York NY 10011.
Horticultural
Bulbs for the Rock Garden Elliott, Jack 1996. ISBN 0-88192-346-X (cloth US$29.95) 160 pp. Timber Press, Inc. 133 SW Second Avenue, Suite 450, Portland OR 97204-3527
Cushion Plants for the Rock Garden Lowe, Duncan 1996. ISBN 0-88192-345-1 (cloth US$29.95) 160 pp. Timber Press, Inc. 133 SW Second Avenue, Suite 450, Portland OR 97204-3527
Euphorbias: A Gardener's Guide Turner, Robert 1996. ISBN 0-88192-330-3 (cloth US$29.95) 192 pp.Timber Press, Inc. 133 SW Second Avenue, Suite 450, Portland OR 97204-3527
Flowering Crabapples: The Genus Malus Fiala, John 1995. ISBN 0-88192-292-7 (cloth US$49.95) 340 pp. Timber Press, Inc. 133 SW Second Avenue, Suite 450, Portland OR 97204-3527
Fuchsias: The Complete Guide Goulding, Edwin 1995. ISBN 0-88192-328-1 (cloth US$34.95) 208 pp. Timber Press, Inc. 133 SW Second Avenue, Suite 450, Portland OR 97204-3527
62
The Gardener's Guide to Britian Taylor, Patrick 1996. ISBN 0-88192-342-7 (paper US$19.95) 320 pp. Timber Press, Inc. 133 SW Second Avenue, Suite 450, Portland OR 97204-3527
Hardy Perennials Rice, Graham 1995. ISBN 0-88192-338-9 (cloth US$27.95) 210 pp. Timber Press, Inc. 133 SW Second Avenue, Suite 450, Portland OR 97204-3527
Hydrangeas: A Gardner's Guide Lawson-Hall, Toni & Brian Rothera 1995. ISBN 0-88192-327-3 (cloth US$34.95) 160 pp. Timber Press, Inc. 133 SW Second Avenue, Suite 450, Portland OR 97204-3527
Rock Garden Plants of North America McGary, Jane ed. 1996. ISBN 0-88192-343-5 (cloth US$49.95) 459 pp. Timber Press, Inc. 133 SW Second Avenue, Suite 450, Portland OR 97204-3527
The Siberian Iris McEwen, Currier 1996. ISBN 0-88192-329-X (cloth US$39.95) 242 pp.Timber Press, Inc. 133 SW Second Avenue, Suite 450, Portland OR 97204-3527
Molecular Biology
The Impact of Plant Molecular Genetics Sobral, Bruno W. S., ed. 1996. ISBN 0-8176-3802-4 (cloth US$89.50) 348 pp. Birkhduser Boston,675 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge MA 02139.
Phycological
Algae: An Introduction to Phycology Hoek, C. Van Den, D.G. Mann & H.M. Jahns 1995. ISBN (cloth) 0-521-30419-9 (paper) 0-521-31687-1
(cloth US$110.00, paper US$39.95) 623 pp. Cam-bridge University Press, 40 West 20th Street, New York NY 10011-4211
Structural/Developmental
The Algorithmic Beauty of Plants Prusinkiewicz, Przemyslaw & Arstid Lindenmayer 1996. ISBN 0-387-94676-4 (paper US$29.95) 228 pp. Springer-Verlag New York, Inc., P,O, Box 19386, Newark NJ 07195-9386
Textbook of Dendrology, Eighth Ed. Harlow, William M., Ellwood S. Harrar, James W. Hardin & Fred M. White 1996. ISBN 0-07-026572-0 (paper US$41.25) 534 pp. McGraw-Hill, College Division, 1221 Avenue of the Americas, New York NY 10020-1095
Systematics
A Field Guide to the Families and Genera of Woody Plants of Northwest South America (Colombia, Ecuador, Peru) with Supplementary Notes on Herbaceous Taxa Gentry, Alwyn H. 1996. ISBN 0-226-28944-3 (cloth US$75.00, paper US$45.00) 918pp.University of Chicago Press, 5801 South Ellis Ave., Chicago IL 60637
Molecular Systematics, Second Edition Hillis, David M., Craig Moritz & Barbara K. Mable, eds. 1996. ISBN 0-87893-282-8 (paper US$49.95) 655 pp. Sinauer Associates, Inc., 23 Plumtree Road, Sunderland, MA 01375-0407
<left>
</left>
63
BOTANICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA LOGO ITEMS
always available to contributors to the
BSA Endowment Fund
Short sleeved T-shirts (100% cotton) Grey with small green logo on front, large purple and green logo on back.
Adult sizes S, M, L, XL, XXL — $14
Child sizes XS, S, M, L — $12
Long sleeved T-shirts
Adult sizes S, M, L, XL — $16
Totebags
Cotton canvas — $12
Cricket Hats
Sizes S, M, L, XL — $25
Cloisonnē pin
White with kelly green logo and gold border — $6 Botany for the Next Millennium Posters
Full-color, 16"x 20" beauty — $5
(please include $3 for shipping posters)
All prices (except poster) include $2.00 for postage and handling.
Specify item(s), style(s) and size(s).
Make checks payable to BSA Endowment Fund. Mail to:
Kim Hiser, Business Manager
Botanical Society of America
1735 Neil Ave.
Columbus OH 43210-1293
64
Copyright © 2024 The Botanical Society of America. 4344 Shaw Blvd., St. Louis, MO 63110 · Voice: 314-577-9566 · FAX: 314-558-9184 · Email: bsa-manager@botany.org
Items posted on the Botanical Society of America's website by the author/creator are licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
We value sharing, growing and learning together. In the spirit of fairness, we believe in the attribution of materials and ensuring the appropriate voices are in place when considering further use.