Thank you for the wonderful response to the first issue of this newsletter and to the flora project. Many of you have written with offers to prepare treatments for various groups. Of particular note has been the strong response from Cuban botanists. Details of the Cuban offer are given below in a separate article, along with their ideas and comments on the flora. Many of the details of the flora format and organization remain unsettled, and for this reason a meeting is planned to resolve them.
For the week of January 13-19 there will be an organizational meeting for the Flora of the Greater Antilles held in Maricao. Puerto Rico at the Parador Hacienda Juanita. In addition to meetings to resolve the format for the Flora and to decide upon taxonomic and regional coordinators, there will be field trips to various habitats within Puerto Rico. The cost of a room at the parador is $60/day for a double or $55/day for a single. Meals are available at the parador. Maricao is a small mountain village in western Puerto Rico, not too far from Mayagüez. The parador is an old coffee plantation. Because of its location, field trips will include both coastal, dry habitats and montane, moist localities. If you are interested in attending, you will need to make a reservation at the parador. The telephone number there is 809-838-2550. Also, so that we can make plans, please contact William R. Buck at the New York Botanical Garden. If you wish to attend and share a room with someone but do not have someone in mind, Dr. Pedro Acevedo (US) will coordinate roommates and make your reservations. You may contact him at 202-786-2692 or by writing to the Department of Botany, NHB-166, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20560.
To a limited extent we will probably be able to meet some of you at the airport in San Juan and transport you to Maricao since we intend to rent a van. Who we can transport depends on flight times and number of people interested. Therefore, contact William R. Buck as soon as you know if you will attend the meeting. If you fly to Mayagüez, it is a relatively easy taxi ride to the parador in Mayagüez.
The taxonomic coordinators will be responsible for finding contributors for their groups, and resolving conflicts when more than one botanist wants to work on the same taxon. The regional coordinators will be responsible for reviewing manuscripts of taxa within their geographic domain to check for accuracy. Even if some of you have not responded directly to me, you will probably be contacted by a coordinator with a request to contribute.
A proposal was submitted to NSF for support of the flora project. Only a two year proposal was submitted for the October 15th deadline to get the flora off and running. In it the New York Botanical Garden has asked for funding for several critical areas. To avoid some of the problems encountered by our sister flora projects (i.e., Flora of North America and Flora Mesoamericana) , we have requested that NSF fund the salaries of a few contributors who are working on very large groups.
In this first grant period we have requested funding for Dr. James Crimes to work on legumes and Dr. Richard Harris to work on lichens. We have also requested funding for 10 fellowships (5/year) of two months each that would allow botanists to come to NY and work on their contributions uninterrupted by the day to day activities of their home institutions. Because there are not specialists for all families, we have requested funding to pay Dr. Thomas Zanoni of the Jardín Botánico Nacional in Santo Domingo to spend half his time at NY working as a generalist to write up smaller families and orphaned genera. Because of the tremendous influx of visitors, we have requested support of a visitor services assistant to make sure the visitors spend their time most efficiently.
Also, to make the specimen information more widely available, we will begin to database and bar-code the Greater Antillean material at NY. The visitor services assistant will also be responsible for proof-reading all the data entered into the system. Because some contributors will need to see their plants in the field, we have requested modest support so that we can provide field expenses to those needing them. In exchange for this initial funding, we have promised 3+ volumes of manuscripts (of an estimated 31 volumes) after the first two years, with two of them being cryptogamic volumes. Of course we may not be successful in this initial approach to NSF, and if we are almost surely the budget will be trimmed somewhat. However, if all goes well on this first proposal, we will be requesting lengthier proposals once we have proved ourselves.
The herbarium GENT contains an important set of American plants collected by the well known Belgian botanist Jean Linden. Many of these specimens are poorly annotated. However, most of his Cuban plants do bear a label, handwritten by Linden (?), giving a rough idea of the locality. Persons interested in a complete list of these ca. 440 Cuban plants can send a note to Paul Goetghebeur (GENT), stating what data they would like to receive.
Paul Goetghebeur
Herbarium
Laboratory of Plant Systematics
State University of Gent
K.L. Ledeganckstraat 35
B-9000 Gent, Belgium
The first newsletter was mailed to all botanists in Cuba listed in Index Herbariorum. In the following month a joint letter from Drs. Pedro Pérez Alvarez, Director of the Institute of Ecology and Systematics of the Academy of Sciences, and Angela Leiva Sánchez, Director of the National Botanic Garden, was received. Because of its importance and the views expressed in it, I am reproducing it in its entirety here.
Dear Dr. Buck:
Last week, many of the members of our staffs, have been receiving the Flora of The Greater Antilles Newsletter. Probably many of them have already answered, in order to continue to receive this newsletter, as the matter concerns very close to almost all of our taxonomists and is of major interest for our scientific institutions.
As you may know, a new treatment of the Flora of Cuba is being prepared since several years. At this moment, about 13 families are finished, and during its revision, a good parcel of Antillean herbarium materials have been consulted asking loans from NY, US, MO, F, GH, and other outstanding USA herbaria through several East European herbaria. Therefore, this opportunity of contributing to the Greater Antilles Flora is considered as the most interesting for us. The National Committee for the Flora of Cuba will send you next week a list of taxonomists that are interested in contributing to the Flora of The Greater Antilles, as well as the taxonomic groups in which they can contribute. In all the cases, trained taxonomists will be proposed.
During the meetings already held, as the Newsletter says, many points didn't obtain consensus, and details remain unsolved in its majority. We would like to give our institutional opinion about the main topics proposed in the Newsletter.
We are absolutely convinced about the necessity of an Spanish-written Flora. First, it is the main language among the four islands. Second, the majority of users are or will later or sooner be, Latin Americans (botanists, ecologists, agronomists, landscape planners, teachers, medical doctors .. and so on). Even for Portuguese-speaking or French-speaking people is easier to read Spanish rather than English. Third, most of the scientists concerned with Neotropical floristics in general do speak or at least read Spanish. If desired, an English edition could be planned, but it is not essential in our opinion.
Of course, we agree that New York Botanical Garden carry with the editorial and publishing work. We think that copyrights of contributors is a point to define in the next future when Organizing Committee start its functions. We also agree with the method of large volumes, taking into account that the Flora will be a concise one, in spite of the difficulties that will arise with tardy authors.
We agree that the less sophisticated language ("jargon") will be used, the more accessibility and best use will have the Flora. Anyway, some parameters should be fixed in order to redact in correct Spanish. Font-Quers Botanical Dictionary is a very good one for Spanish-written botanical texts. Local terms (except local common names given to plants, that are very important to compile) most be forbidden.
Concerning illustrations, we think that one per genus, embracing the whole variability of diagnostic characters within it, is enough, except when infrageneric categories are present; in such a case, one illustration per infrageneric category will be needed. Anyhow, there will be exceptions to any rule, and the Editorial Committee will decide in connection with the author.
We think that, for the Flora be useful enough. the geographical distribution must be included in the text, probably mentioning at least the political-administrative mayor locality (province, department, etc.). Concerning the number of specimens cited, it might be limited to the five-eight more representative ones per island. That will express the limits of the range, or the ecological extremes. As a supplement, a database of all revised specimens will be very useful for more specialized studies.
Concerning the maps, although the idea of a separate atlas is good, it is necessary for the users of the Flora to have at least a rough idea of geographical distribution within the proper volume. Type localities could be typographically distinguished at the maps, as it is obvious that protologues are of obligatory consult for all contributors.
Finally, we offer the facilities for celebrating the next meeting in La Habana, Cuba, the next year (may be February or March?).
Hoping to hear about you in due course, we remain.
Sincerely yours,
Dr. Pedro Pérez Alvarez
Director
Institute of Ecology and Systematics
Academy of Sciences
Dr. Angela Leiva Sánchez
Director
National Botanic Garden
Additionally, a letter was received from Dr. Leiva in her capacity as Vice - President of the National Committee
for the Flora of Cuba, with a list of Cuban botanists interested in participating in the flora. She concurred with
our proposal that in most cases it would be best for West Indian botanists to work in collaboration with an American
or European systematist. Here is a list of the botanists and their specialties.
Alberto Alvarez: Dracaenaceae, Agavaceae, Smilacaceae,
Melastornataceae (p.p.)
Ileana Arias: Lemnaceae
Martha A. Díaz: Nyctaginaceae, Burrnanniaceae,
Orchidaceae (p.p.)
Jorge Gutiérrez: Flacourtiaceae. Cactaceae
Alicia Rodríguez: Cactaceae (p.p.). Malvaceae,
Sterculiaceae, Bombacaceae, Elaeocarpaceae. Tiliaceae
Rosa Rankin: Aristolochiaceae. Polygalaceae
Lutgarda González : Eriocaulaceae, Linaceae
Rosalina Berazaín: Ericaceae, Clethraceae,
Cyrillaceae
Cristina Panfet; Droseraceae
Hildelisa Saralegui: Piperaceae, Chloranthaceae
Algela Leiva: Loranthaceae, Erernolepidaceae,
Viscaceae
Alfredo Noa: Thymeleaceae
Idelfonso Castañeda: Ochnaceae
Eduardo Méndez : Verbenaceae (Lantanae)
Armando Urquiola: Haemodoraceae, Naiadaceae, Mayacaceae,
Xyridaceae
Víctor Fuentes: Goetzeaceae, Solanaceae
Jorge Sierra: Begoniaceae
Martha Valentín: Myricaceae
Francisco Cejas: Bromeliaceae
Luis Catasús: Poaceae (p.p.)
Carlos Zavaro: Cyperaceae (p.p.)
Mayra Fernández: Rubiaceac (p.p.)
Reina Hechevarria: Lobeliaceae
Sonia Machado: Anacardiaceae
Antonio Crawford: Simarubaceae
Miguel A. Vales: Capparidaceae
Ramona Oviedo: Erythroxylaceae
Pedro Herrera: Compositae (p.p.)
Isora Baró: Verbenaceae (p.p.)
Adelaida Barreto: Caesalpinaceae (p.p.)
Angela Beyra: Fabaceae (p.p.)
Delhy Albert: Meliaceae
Jacqueline Pérez: Loganiaceae. Dilleniaceae
Carlos Sánchez : Hymenophyllaceae, Polypodiaceae
(s.l.)
Mayra Camino: Myxomycetes
Sara Herrera: Hymenochaetaceae. Polyporaceae
Jorge L. Ortiz: Tricholomataceae
Hilda D. Gómez: Micropeltaceae
Miguel Rodríguez: Meliolaceae
Gloria Recio: Xylariaceae
Angel Mercado: Hyphomycetes
Julio Mena: Hyphomycetes
Kendra Rodríguez: Hyphomycetes
Augusto Comas: Chlorococcaceae
Victor Martínez: Desmidiaceae
Enrique Genes: Oscillatoriaceae
Susana Maldonado: Bacillariophyceae
Liliana Toledo: Bacillariophyceae
Hugó Iglesias: Lichens (p.p.)
As a result of a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to the New York Botanical Garden for new initiatives in science, NY began the Flora of Greater Antilles project by initiating fellowships for botanists to work on the flora. The first fellow is Alberto Areces Mallea from the Museo Nacional de Historia Natural in Habana, Cuba. Areces is working on the Cactaceae for the Greater Antilles. During his 2 month stay at NY he is concentrating on the genera Leptocereus and Opuntia s.1. From NY he hopes to go to the Cayman Islands at the invitation of the Cayman National Trust to study the cacti there. Before returning to Cuba he also hopes to stop off in the Dominican Republic to search for a new species of Leptocereus that he has discovered from herbarium material. Anyone wishing to contact Alberto Areces while he is in NY (until 5 November) may write c/o William R.Buck or telephone him directly at 212-220-8642.
