TODAY WE CELEBRATE THE 200TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE BIRTH OF CHARLES DARWIN!

"Can the principle of selection, which we have seen is so potent in the hands of man, apply in nature? I think we shall see that it can act most effectually. Let it be borne in mind in what an endless number of strange peculiarities our domestic productions, and, in a lesser degree, those under nature, vary; and how strong the hereditary tendency is. Under domestication, it may be truly said that the whole organisation becomes in some degree plastic. Let it be borne in mind how infinitely complex and close-fitting are the mutual relations of all organic beings to each other and to their physical conditions of life. Can it, then, be thought improbable, seeing that variations useful to man have undoubtedly occurred, that other variations useful in some way to each being in the great and complex battle of life, should sometimes occur in the course of thousands of generations? If such do occur, can we doubt (remembering that many more individuals are born than can possibly survive) that individuals having any advantage however slight, over others, would have the best chance of surviving and of procreating their kind? On the other hand, we may feel sure that any variation in the least degree injurious would be rigidly destroyed. This preservation of favourable variations and the rejection of injurious variations, I call Natural Selection."

28TH ANNUAL MEETING OF THE WILLI HENNIG SOCIETY

The 28th Annual Meeting of the Willi Hennig Society will take place in Singapore from the 22.6.-26.6.2009. The meeting will be hosted by the National University of Singapore and the Singapore Botanic Gardens (National Parks Board) and take place in the Function Hall of the Singapore Botanic Gardens (http://www.sbg.org.sg/visitorinfo/venueforrent.asp). Currently four symposia have been scheduled:

1. Use of EST libraries for phylogeny reconstruction
2. Phylogenetic approaches to public and environmental health
3. Taxonomy in the 21st century: New tools and dissemination media
4. Southeast Asian biogeography and speciation

Please contact Rudolf Meier (dbsmr@nus.edu.sg), Benito Tan (Benito_TAN@nparks.gov.sg), or Ngan Kee Ng (dbsngnk@nus.edu.sg) for further information and/or if you are interested in proposing additional symposia.

With best wishes,

Rudolf Meier (1)
Benito Tan (2)
Ngan Kee Ng (1)

(1) National University of Singapore, Department of Biological Sciences, Singapore 117543
(2) The Herbarium, Singapore Botanic Gardens, 1 Cluny Road, Singapore 259569

FIELD KEY TO THE MONOTROPACEAE OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST

1 a. Plants low to the ground at maturity, old stalks not persistent,    
fruit a berry, seeds attached to inward projections from the berry  
wall, style and ovary merge smoothly. 

	2a. Petals united, hairy on inner surfaces, flowers in a dense
	head, usually just emerging from duff, light pink when young, 	
	fading to straw coloured.          
					Hemitomes congestum Gray

	2b. Petals free, flowers in a more elongated raceme, cream to straw

	coloured, elevated somewhat more above the duff. 

		3a. Petals densely hairy within, anther rounded. 
					Pityopus californicus (Eastw.) Copeland

		3b. Petals not hairy, margin fimbriate, anthers elongate.  
					Pleuricospora fimbriolata Gray

1 b. Plants not low to the ground at maturity, old stalks often present, 
fruit a capsule, seeds attached to a central column, style not evenly 
continuous with ovary. 

	4a. Plants bright red or red and white striped when fresh. 

		5a. Plants bright red, fading to brownish red, capsule hard

		and shinning, seeds round, about 1 mm in dia., not known 
		north of Douglas Co., OR. 	
						Sarcodes sanguinea Torr.

		5b. Plants red and white striped, pale when emerging and 
		staining green at times, drying to black, flowers open and 
		shallow with stamens exerted. 
						Allotropa virgata Torr. & Gray

	4b. Plants pinkish, to dull orange, to straw coloured or brick 
	red-brown. 

		6a. Petals united, stalk emerging erect, usually 
		orange-brown to brick red-brown but may be yellow, 
		tall (may reach 1 m). 
						Pterospora andromedea Nutt.
		6b. Petals free, flower stalks emerge bent over. 

			7a. Flower stalks with only one flower, white. 
						Monotropa uniflora L.
			7b. Many flowers on a stalk, pink (rarely red) to
			Orange to straw coloured.
						Monotropa hypopitys L.

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