James D. Ackerman, University of Puerto Rico at Río Piedras, wrote of his experience in collecting plants in Jamaica during a trip in April 1995. Recent regulations and enforcement means that permits must be obtained to collect plants in the Blue Mountains and Jim Crow Mountains, both of which are now included in national parks. To apply for permission to collect in the national parks, contact Miss Yvette Strong, Natural Resources Conservation Authority, 53½ Molynes Road, Kingston 10, Jamaica, West Indies (telephones [809] 937-1774 and 923-5166; fax [809] 923-5070). A copy of the same letter should be sent to Dr. David Lee, Planning Institute of Jamaica, 8 Ocean Boulevard, P.O. Box 634, Kingston, Jamaica, West Indies (telephones [809] 967-3690 ext. 2 and 967-3949 ext. 50 and fax [809] 967-3688). The letter should summarize the project and provide as many details as possible concerning the proposed collecting activities. The Conservation Authority expects that duplicate specimens be deposited at the Institute of Jamaica (IJ). Dr. Lee estimated that it would take about one month to process an application. When planning for the field work, Jim Ackerman suggests a two month lead time to obtain the permits. Jim does not recommend arrival in Jamaica without having received the necessary permission to collect in the national parks beforehand.
If a CITES permit is needed (which has no relation to the permit for collecting in the national parks), notify Miss Strong in advance because her office also issues these papers. Although the permit is issued just before departure date from Jamaica, it is necessary to notify her office even before one arrives in Jamaica. She will explain the procedures. In addition to contacting the Conservation Authority, one should also write to Dr. Ivan Goodbody, Chairman of the Scientific Authority-CITES, Jamaica, at the Department of Zoology, University of the West Indies, Mona, Kingston 7, Jamaica, West Indies.
While in the Kingston area, worthwhile visits can be made to the herbaria at the University of the West Indies (UCWI) where Jamaican collections of William Harris and C. D. Adams are housed and at the Institute of Jamaica (IJ), where collections by George R. Proctor are found. IJ also has some specimens from Erik L. Ekman's Haiti and the Dominican Republic years and Wilhelm Buch's Haiti years.
Jamaican topographic maps are now available in a new metric edition. They are available from the Government Survey Office in Kingston or via outlets in England (OS International Ordnance Survey, Romsey Road, Southampton SO16 4GU, England) or in California (MapLink Inc., Santa Barbara at fax [805] 962-0884). The new set has about 20 sheets at 1: 50,000 scale. Jim wrote that the maps are "Absolutely essential" for plant exploration in Jamaica.
World Palm Symposium. 20-21 October 1995.
Sponsored by the Palm Beach Palm and Cycad Society. Thirteen invited palm researchers will give presentations on
their work with the Arecaceae. No other presentations are scheduled. Location: Fairchild Tropical Garden, Miami,
Florida. Registration by 20 September. Contact Paul Craft at telephone (407) 793-9029 or fax (407) 790-0194. Palm
Beach Palm & Cycad Society, 16652 Velazquez Blvd., Loxahatchee, FL 33470.
II Taller de Biodiversidad. 25-27 October 1995.
Workshop on the biodiversity of Cuba, to be held in Santiago de Cuba, sponsored by the Centro Oriental de Ecosistemas
y Biodiversidad (BIOECO), la Sociedad ProNATURALEZA, and the Universidad de Oriente. Registration by 30 August.
For further information contact: BIOECO, Museo de Historia Natural "Tomas Romay", José A. Saco
No. 601 esquina Barnada, Santiago de Cuba, CP 90100, Cuba. Telephone (53) (0226) 23277, fax (53) (0266) 41579 and
e-mail cmstgo@ceniai.cu.
V Encuentro de Botánica "Johannes Bisse, in memoriam". 14-16 December 1995.
Instituto Superior Pedagógico "José Martí", Camagüey,
Cuba. Activities: Pre-meeting sessions, Third National Meeting of Cuban Herbaria, First Symposium of Environmental
Education, First Symposium for Ethnobotany, First Plant Biotechnology Workshop, First Botanical Education Workshop,
Field excursions (after the meetings). Sessions are planned for live presentations of research, as well as posters,
in the following areas: plant anatomy, plant diversity, plant biotechnology, ecology, environmental education,
botanical history, and computerization applied to botany. Abstracts for presentations and posters are due by 15
November 1995. Further information and the second announcement are available from Isidro E. Méndez Santos,
Secretario Ejecutivo, V Encuentro de Botánica, ISP "José Martí," Camagüey 6,
CP-74670, Cuba. Telephones (53) (322) 61017, 62232 and 62306. Fax (53) (322) 62232.
Plants for Food and Medicine. 1-6 July 1996.
The joint meeting of the Society for Economic Botany and the International Society for Ethnopharmacology to be
held at the Imperial College, the Natural History Museum, and the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew in England. Symposia:
Food, Medicine and Health; Cross-cultural Plant Exchange; and Botany-What's in it for Drylands Development. Two
days of miscellaneous contributed papers and posters are planned. Afterwards, on 8-10 July 1996, at the Southampton
University, the International Centre for Under-utilised Crops is sponsoring the conference: Domestication, Production
and Utilization of New Crops". Contact for information and second circular: Linnean Society, Burlington House,
Piccadilly, London W1V 0LQ, England. Telephone (44) (0) 171 434-4479, fax 171 287-9364, and e-mail marquita@linnean.demon.co.uk.
Simposio de Botánica. 10-13 July 1996.
La Sociedad Cubana de Botánica, the Instituto de Ecología y Sistemática, el Jardín
Botánico Nacional, and la Sociedad ProNATURALEZA will sponsor the biennial meeting. Principal themes will
be biodiversity and conservation, plant taxonomy and systematics, and socio-cultural and economic impact of the
use of plant resources. Other sessions are planned for plant anatomy and morphology, flora and vegetation, economic
botany, ethnobotany, phytochemistry, ecophysiology, management and conservation of biodiversity, plant biotechnology
for the conservation of genetic resources, and botanical gardens. Contact for information and the second circular:
Carlos Zavaro Pérez, Instituto de Ecología y Sistemática, Carretera de Varona km 3½,
Boyeros, CP-10800, Habana, CUBA, fax (53) 7 333758 or 7 331325, or e-mail: ecologia@ceniai.cu. Rosa Rankin Rodríguez, Jardín
Botánico Nacional, Carretera del Rocío km 3½, Calbazar, Boyeros, CP 19320, Habana, CUBA, fax
(53) 7 335350 or e-mail: hajb@ceniai.cu. We hope to be able to have a FLORA OF THE GREATER ANTILLES meeting at this conference.
An orchid flora of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.
James D. Ackerman. Memoirs of the New York Botanical Garden 73: 1-203. [97 plates]. June 1995. Scientific Publications
Department, The New York Botanical Garden, Bronx, New York 10458-5126. ISBN 0-89327-394-5. Price: $35.00 hardcover
plus postage and handling (in USA: $3.50 plus 5% of subtotal of order).
Descriptive flora of Puerto Rico and adjacent islands: Spermatophyta. Vol. IV. Melastomataceae
to Lentibulariaceae.
Henri Alain Liogier. 1995. Editorial de la Universidad de Puerto Rico, Apartado 23322, Río Piedras, Puerto
Rico 00931-3322. ISBN 0-8477-2337-2. Price: $20.00 paperback plus shipping (in USA: $3.00). 617 pp.
The manuscript by Pedro Pablo Duarte-Bello, Musgos de Cuba, was finished when I first saw it in Cuba in 1982. However, numerous delays led to it not being published before now, including Duarte's immigration to the United States in 1985. However, I now have information that the Real Jardín Botánico in Madrid will publish it in 1996. I also recently received a letter from Dr. Duarte, who is still living in the Miami area. - William R. Buck
The Carnegie Museum of Natural History (CM) is in the process of entering label data from its plant specimens into a database. Data from approximately 30% of CM specimens, including all Pennsylvania specimens, all primary types and isotypes, all Orchidaceae, collections made by current staff, and miscellaneous other material, have been captured. The CM database presently contains over 165,000 specimen-based records. Although CM's Caribbean holdings have not been the focus of data entry, more than 5,000 specimens from this region have been entered.
The Carnegie Museum encourages both data and loan requests from botanists involved in the Flora of the Greater Antilles project. Label data are entered from all specimens before they are sent on loan, and thus an electronic copy of specimen data can be included with any loan shipment. Please address inquiries to: Sue Thompson, Section of Botany, Carnegie Museum of Natural History, 4400 Forbes Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, U.S.A. (telephone: 412-622-3295; FAX: 412-622-8837; e-mail: thompsons@clpgh.org).
