Review PDF
Preview Review
488 BLUMEA Vol. 42, No. 2, 1997 Review R.J. JOHNS: Index Filicum. Supplementum sextum pro annis 1976-1990.The Royal BotanicGardens, Kew, 1996.344pp.ISBN 1-900347-11-3.Price unknown. This sixth supplement totheoriginal andinvaluableIndexFilicumcontinuesthe traditionofcross-referencing allbasionyms to theirnewnames. It covers theperiod from 1976to 1990, amere 15 years in thenearly 250years thatseparate us from Linnaeus.Yetitcontains344pagesfullofnew species andnew combinations(sta- tistics onthenumbersofeachcategory are notprovided). Thedates forthis volume are not very strict:importantpublications before 1976thatwere not fullyindexedin theprevious volumehavebeenincorporated in themainbody, not in theAddenda, Corrigenda etEmendanda(ACE). Compare, forinstance, themere 16new combi- nationsinSphaeropteris made by R.M. Tryon in 1970listedin theprevious Supple- mentwiththenearly 100listedhere! Forthefirsttimein pteridological history, pteridologists now also haveaccess to infraspecific names, and haveless excuse toignore someofthemquietly.Whether this is an advantage remainsto be seen. Records only go back to 1976(although someolder infraspecific names are listedintheACE),whichmeans thatlotsandlots ofolder names(and alltheircorresponding autonyms) are stillwaiting to takeup theirproperplace inthepriority.Withnomenclaturalruleson infraspecific names as intricateas they are now,andwithouttheexcuseofignorance, itis very temping to moveaway fromtheuseofinfraspecific categories altogether. Thereare several reasons why this hugecollectionofreferences stilldoesnot ab- solve monographers fromtheirpractice ofchecking andrechecking anything thathas appeared inprint.One is that apparently claimsby authorsforthepriority ofnames havenot beenevaluated.Itseems thatany nameorcombinationwith"nom.nov."or "comb,nov."behinditintheoriginal publication hasbeen included, evenifthecom- binationhasbeen madeearlier.Thetreatmentof theseisonyms is not consistent. In one case, wefindtwo isonyms directlyaboveeach other(p. 91: Crypsinus nigro- venius (Christ) K. Iwats. 1975 and C. nigrovenius (Christ) V.N.Tu 1979). In a comparable case (Hyalotrichopteris L.D. Gomez 1982vs. Hyalotrichopteris W.H. Wagner 1979) thelaternameis marked as isonym. Inanothercase, theisonymy of Belvisiaannamensis(C.Chr.) V.N.Tu 1979,predated by B. annamensis(C.Chr.) Tagawa 1976,has gonecompletely unnoticed.Anotherreason is that, despite theob- viouscare with whichthedatahavebeenassembled, someerrors have unavoidably creptin.For afutureinstallmentofACE,Ican hereofferthefollowingcorrections: Page209: Lycopodiella contexta HolubandL. x copelandii Cranfillare(likeall new combinationsmade inLycopodiella byCranfillin 1981)citedunderLycopodium. Page 293: Pyrrosia lingua var. heteractatashouldbespelled correctly heteracta. Page300: ThecombinationsSelliguea bellisquamata, S.plebiscopa andS.wern- eriareerroneously includedunderSelenodesmium. Inspection of 10randomly chosenpagesprovided threeoftheseerrorsor incon- sistenciesand oneminortypographic error, leaving 7pageswithoutobvious errors. Inspection ofsome ofthegeneraIhavebeenclosely involved with, provided the otherexamples. Extrapolating theseresults isperhaps not warranted, considering the smallsample, butunlessIhadsomeexceptionally badluck inrandomly selecting the pages,this Supplement is farfrom error-free.Nevertheless, likeitspredecessors, it is anindispFensable referencetool forallpteridologists. P.Hovenkamp
The list of books you might like
