| BEN |
| BOTANICAL ELECTRONIC NEWS |
|---|
| ISSN 1188-603X |
| No. 154 January 23, 1997 | aceska@freenet.victoria.bc.ca Victoria, B.C. |
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In order to resolve the conflicts in the CU Herbarium (which I have determined actually predate the present curator, and go beyond individual personality disputes), and to underline the authority of the Curator of the Herbarium, the CU administration has agreed to move the office of Emeritus Prof. William Weber to another Museum facility. The Director of the Museum has made alternative accommodations, including a computer hook-up, and assistance of University personnel to move Prof. Weber's office materials and personal belongings. He retains the same access to the Herbarium as would be afforded to any other visiting scholar, and the use of a modest Univesity research account to support his ongoing scholarship. These space and research priviledges have been extended to Prof. Weber in recognition not only of his professional reputation and many contributions to botany in Colorado, but also because we value his continued productivity and collaborations.
A vast area of the Canadian North has a new Flora. The Yukon Territory covers about 482.7 square km (about 1+1/3 of California, almost as big as France) and hosts over 1,100 vascular plant species. W.J. (Bill) Cody, a former Curator of the Vascular Plant Herbarium of the Department of Agriculture in Ottawa (DAO), started his field work in the Yukon Territory in 1960's and since 1980 he concentrated his efforts in compiling and writing this Flora.
This is an important book, and a thorough treatment of Yukon's flora. It gives keys for identification, and for each species it provides a detailed description, information on habitat and distribution. Each species is illustrated and each species is accompanied with a Yukon distribution map. The layout and typography is superb.
The taxonomy employed in this book is conservative in the best sense of the word. D.F. Murray contributed the treatment of the genus Papaver, R.J. Bayer the genus Antennaria. The Arabis treatment follows that of G.A. Mulligan. The author used the wealth of the largest botanical library in Canada and the book has an extensive bibliography. Cody recognized several new taxa previously either not reported from North America or reported only in footnotes on general distribution in the Russian Arctic Flora. As an example I would like to point out Potentilla villosula Yurtzev (alpine plants of "Potentilla villosa") that occurs from Yukon throughout British Columbia to Washington.
The major problem that I had with this Flora was that the author only rarely refers to the taxonomical works cited in the Bibliography. I would have liked to have had a short note on the taxonomy or nomenclature of some species or genera. The references to "further reading" in appropriate places would have improved the book. Some of the discussion published by W.J. Cody in his earlier paper (Canadian Field-Naturalist 108: 428-476. 1994) should have been repeated in this book.
In several cases the author avoided the taxonomical discussion by putting "s.l." behind the species name. This abbreviation means "sensu lato" (= "in a broad sense") and indicates that this "species" is a taxonomical complex that needs further study. If you are a young ambitious botanist, pick up an "s.l." taxon for your thesis, if you are not so ambitious, dig into the literature and keep collecting more specimens (in Yukon, though, you need a collecting permit - see below).
This Flora is a magnificent edition to the North American botanical literature. Congratulations to Bill Cody, the Canadian Department of Agriculture (what used to be the Biosystematics Research Institute), and to the NRC Research Publications Program!
To legally collect within the Yukon you require a Yukon Scientist and Explorer License which can be obtained at no charge from the Yukon Ministry of Tourism Heritage Branch 211 Hawkins Street, Whitehorse, Y1A 1X3 attention Jeff Hunston, Director (403) it should be 667-5363. Anyone from Outside the Territory should apply. [The phone number has been corrected here as per the Errata in BEN #158]
There are no species that have any protection, so anything can be collected however the license would be passed to Catherine Kennedy and if the collecting would be occurring on native lands, the local band councils would also be contacted.
Voucher specimens should be sent to:
and/or to:
Catherine Kennedy
Renewable Resources, YTG
#10 Burns Road
Whitehorse, YT Y1A 4Y9
(403) 668-5407
On January 20, 1997, an enhancement to the UnCover Reveal service was released: Books-in-Reveal. This enhancement was created in partnership with Academic Book Center (AcBC).
Each week, the Books-in-Reveal feature will automatically run the search terms (both words and names) that you currently have stored for new articles against new book titles as well. AcBC will typically be supplying UnCover an average of 600 new titles each week. E-mail Reveal book alerts will be sent to you for any matches.
After reviewing the e-mailed book alerts, Reveal users can order the book(s) by replying to the book alert message. All book order requests will be forwarded on to Academic Book Center for fulfillment.
The Books-in-Reveal feature will be made available to Reveal users at no additional cost. If one of your searches matches, you will get an e-mail. If no matches are found, no e-mail messages will be sent.
You may wish to modify or add new search strategies to your profile to utilize this new feature. If you have any questions, please contact UnCover by phone (800-787-7979 or 303-758-3030 for callers outside the U.S. and Canada), or by email (uncover@carl.org).
[To connect with CARL and use the UnCover features, make a telnet connection to 192.54.81.76 - and follow the menue. You will be asked to identify your terminal: VT100 works well for my PC. See also BEN # 75 and # 95 for more on CARL and UnCover Reveal. - AC]
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service seeks public input and comment on a revised National List of Plant Species That Occur in Wetlands. A wetland indicator was assigned to each species that expresses the fidelity to wetlands by region and sub-region.
Copies of the revised National list including its regional subdivisions are available on February 15, 1997, from the Fish and Wildlife Service, National Wetlands Inventory, Suite 101, Monroe Building, 9720 Executive Center Drive, St. Petersburg, FL 33702-2440. Electronic copies of the above lists are available for downloading from the World Wide Web at http://www.nwi.fws.gov/ecology.htm.
Written comments may be submitted by April 30, 1997 to
For further information contact: Mr. Porter B. Reed, Jr., Fish and Wildlife Service, at (813) 570-5425, Dr. Russell Theriot, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, at (601) 634-2733, Mr. William Sipple, Environmental Protection Agency, at (202) 260-6066, or Dr.Norman Melvin, Natural Resources Conservation Service, at (301) 497-5933.
Submissions, subscriptions, etc.: aceska@freenet.victoria.bc.ca.
BEN is archived on gopher freenet.victoria.bc.ca. The URL is:
gopher://freenet.victoria.bc.ca:70/11/environment/Botany/ben. Also archived at http://www.ou.edu/cas/botany-micro/ben/