Contents

General Guidelines
Family Description
   Family description template
   Example of family description
Key to Genera
   Example of key to genera
Descriptions of Genera
Key to Species
Descriptions of Species
   Species description template
   Example of species description
Figures
   Example of color photograph with legend
   Example of illustration with legend
Figure Legends
Database

General Guidelines

Uniformity among family treatments is strived for but, because of the differences in structures among families, this is not always possible. Uniformity of the treatments within a family is, however, expected.

General guidelines for preparation of the manuscript are as follows:

• The manuscript is prepared using WordPerfect 5.1. If that is not possible, please submit the manuscript as an ASCII file.
• The font is Courier 12 cpi.
• The manuscript is double spaced.
• The manuscript is left justified.
• Taxa are treated in alphabetical order.
• Generic and species names are underlined in the manuscript.
• In all descriptions (family, genus, species), the general concept is to describe features from the proximal to the distal, from the exterior to the interior, and from the general to the more specific. More characters can be added to the descriptions than are given in our examples if they have taxonomic value for a given group.
• Dimensions are given as length X width. The multiplication sign is generated by pressing Ctl V followed by 6,39 (Enter).
• Numbers less than 1 are reported with a preceding 0, e.g., 0.5 cm.
• Ranges of numbers are reported as follows: (3)4-5(8).
• Numbers are modified by the dimension measured, e.g., 10 cm long, 3 cm diam., 8 cm wide, etc.
• Abbreviations are followed by periods except in the following cases: measurements (e.g., mm, cm, m) and phenological information [e.g., st (=sterile), fl (=flowering), fr (=fruiting) and the months of the year (Jan, Feb, Mar, etc.)].
• Once an electronic version of the manuscript has been received by the editorial office, all subsequent changes to the electronic version are to be made only by the editors based on marked hard copy provided by the authors. This avoids confusion over which copy of the manuscript is current.
  

Family Description

1. Scientific name of family centered in capitals and in bold face followed by the common name of the family according to Cronquist (1981) in parenthesis. Only the first letters of the common family name are capitalized.

2. Name of the author(s) of the treatment centered beneath the family name in lower case except for initial capitals.

3. Family description. A brief description of the family based on characters of the family as found in northeastern South America (north of the Amazon River and east of the Orinoco River). Make it clear if features are described that are not currently found in our flora by using "outside our flora" directly after the feature described [e.g., "Fruits berries or samaras (outside our flora)"]. Alternatively, if there is a need to stress that a certain feature expresses a given character state in our flora but that other character states may be found in northeastern South America, then follow the feature with "in our flora" (e.g., "Fruits berries in our flora"). Gross morphological characters as well as those that can seen with a 10X hand lens are stressed.
     Cronquist (1981) is followed for family concepts. References to other concepts of the family are provided in a separate paragraph directly following the description. Please provide the full citation of these references so they can be added to the "Literature Cited."

4. If the family is monogeneric, the family description takes precedent over the generic description. See Descriptions of Genera.

Family description template

• Names of authors follow Brummitt & Powell (1992). This is a deviation from the format for Part 1.
• The family description begins flush left.
• Universal family characters should not be repeated in the generic descriptions.
• For the most part, features such as buttresses and pubescence are not provided in the family description because they are seldom diagnostic for families.
• Hickey (1979) is followed for the shapes of leaves, petals, etc. in this and other descriptions.
• The use of "the", "a", and "an" are allowed only when needed to clarify a description.

Key to Genera

• The generic key comes directly after the family description, i.e., it is not preceded by "Key to Genera."
• The order of structures in the keys follows the order of structures as they appear in the descriptions, i.e., the most diagnostic characters are not listed first.
• Each organ is treated as a separate sentence and with the same punctuation as in the descriptions, e.g., "Leaves opposite; petioles 4 cm long; blades ovate. Inflorescences terminal, etc."
• Indent (not tab) is used at the beginning of each new key entry, both before the numbers of the entries and before the text.
• dot leaders run from the text to the taxon name (press Alt F6 twice).
• The generic name is abbreviated. See following example.
• The taxon is underlined. .....A. occidentale.
• The taxon name is followed by a full stop. See preceding example.
• Information in the keys should agree with what is provided in the descriptions.
  

Descriptions of Genera

• Genus name centered, in all caps, and in boldface above generic description. Author of genus in normal face (not in bold) with only the initials and first letter of last name capitalized.
• If the family is monogeneric, the generic description is replaced by "A monogeneric family. The generic description same as the description of the family."
• If the genus is monotypic, the generic description is replaced by "A monotypic genus. The generic description same as the description of the species." In this case, the species description can be more detailed than usual.
• The generic descriptions begin flush left.
• Only those features needed to distinguish the genera as they are found in northeastern South America need be included.
• Do not repeat characters that are universal for the family, they should have already been included in the family description.
• The order and punctuation of generic descriptions is the same as for family and species descriptions.
• Any special information about genera should be included in a separate paragraph following the generic description.

Key to Species

• Construction of keys to species follows the rules outlined for Key to Genera.

Descriptions of Species

• The species name is flush left and in bold face.
• The names of authors appear in normal type. Brummitt and Powell (1992) are followed for the spelling and abbreviation of names of authors. This is a deviation from the format for Part 1.
• Authors names preceding ex and following in are suppressed. For example, Ctenitis refulgens (Klotzsch ex Mettenius) C. Christenson ex Vareschi is simplified to C. refulgens (Mettenius) Vareschi and Trichomanes kapplerianum J. W. Sturm in Martius is simplified to T. kapplerianum J. W. Sturm.
• If a commonly used scientific name is rejected in favor of a less widely applied name, the former is cited as a synonym in brackets after the accepted name, e.g.

• Species and infraspecific names are in bold face while the authors and the taxon ranks are in normal type.
• The first line of the species name is flush left and subsequent lines of the species reference are indented five spaces. See Oenocarpus example above
• References to figures and plates are flush right after the species name (including synonymy if given). See Oenocarpus example above.
• The species description begins with a single tab.
• Species descriptions should provide only enough information to confirm species determinations, i.e., detailed species descriptions are encouraged only if the classification of the group is so difficult that considerable information is needed to confirm species determinations. In other words, keep the species descriptions as brief as possible.
• A phenological statement based on the months of the year in which flowering and fruiting collections have been collected follows the description of the species' morphology. See example below. If a species flowers throughout the year, the following model is used: "Fl (year round);"
• An ecological statement indicating habitat and abundance follows the phenological statement and is separated from the phenological statement by a semicolon. See example below.
• Information on economic uses, pollination, dispersal, etc. follows and is separated from the ecological statement by a semicolon. See example below.
• Local names are provided in a separate sentence after the ecological/economic botany statement. The local names are underlined. Local names will be added by the editors based on local names as they appear in the Aublet database (Hoff et al., 1989). Only local names as they apply in central French Guiana are included. See example below.
  

• Any additional discussion on taxonomic problems etc., follow in a separate paragraph at the end of the species description.
  

Species description template

Figures

• Whenever possible, material for figures should be from within the geographic area of the Guide. Figures comprise both technical botanical illustrations and color photographs.
• All illustrations are based on vouchered herbarium material and specimens upon which the illustrations are based should be annotated as having been used for making the illustration.
• Extreme caution should be taken when composing illustrations based on more than one collection, especially collections from outside of the area of the Guide. It is better to have an incomplete illustration of a species than an illustration of more than one species posing as one.
  

Figure Legends

• Reference to herbarium vouchers are included in the figure legends.
• The provenance of all collections from outside the area of the Guide should be mentioned in the figure legends.
• All longitudinal sections through the middle of an organ are called medial sections.
• Top views of flowers etc. are called apical views.
• Side views of flowers etc. are called lateral views.
• Upper surfaces are called adaxial and lower surfaces abaxial.
• All sections at right angles to the main axis of an organ are called transverse sections.
• The position of a part of an illustration is given in reference to the letters on the figure, e.g., above, below, near left, middle left, far left, etc.
  

Database

• The manuscript should be compared with the specimens cited in the database to make sure that all species in the manuscript are represented by vouchered specimens in the database. Usually, only species vouchered by specimens collected from the area of the Guide are included. Any exceptions to this must be clearly indicated in the text as follows: "To be expected but not yet collected from central French Guiana." Inclusion of non-vouchered species is, however, discouraged.
• All species in the database should be accounted for in the manuscript.
  
  Follow this link to search the Specimen Database.

Literature Cited