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No. 266 March 26, 2000
aceska at victoria.tc.ca Victoria, B.C.
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Dr. A. Ceska, P.O.Box 8546, Victoria, B.C. Canada V8W 3S2
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EXCELLENT OPPORTUNITY FOR BOTANIST IN ALASKA !!!
The Central Alaska network of the National Park Service is
currently seeking applications for a Botanist position to assist
in leading a vascular plant inventory study in three of Alaska's
premier National Park units: Denali National Park, Wrangell-St.
Elias National Park and Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve.
The person in this position will take part in all aspects of the
inventory study including site selection, fieldwork, specimen
identification and data analysis. This is truly an exciting
opportunity for field-oriented botanists. This job opportunity
is posted on the USA jobs website of the United States Office of
Personnel Management (http://www.usajobs.opm.gov). Application
instructions and a more complete description may be found by
performing an "agency job search" for Alaska Region of the
National Park Service at this web address!!
For information about this opportunity, please call the Susanne
Brown, personnel specialist for Denali National Park at (907)
683-9503. You may also contact the project principal inves-
tigator, Carl Roland at (907) 456-0479.
LEON KELSO AND HIS BIOLOGICAL LEAFLETS - CALL FOR HELP
From: Dr. Bill Weber [weberw at colorado.edu]
Leon Kelso was a government employee in Washington, D.C. at the
Bureau of Biological Survey. His specialty was ornithology, but
he was also very much interested in the Rocky Mountain Flora. He
never published in a "refereed journal," and was probably the
last of a breed of American scientists who felt he had to pub-
lish his own journal. This was a series which he called Biologi-
cal Leaflets. It appears that he published at least 88 of these,
on topics ranging from the taxonomy of owls, the anatomy of
feathers, the Colorado flora, the willows (_Salix_) and sedges
(_Carex_) in Colorado.
Very few sets of the Biological Leaflets remain. The University
of Colorado Herbarium in Boulder has had some of them for many
years, but I recently discovered many missing numbers among the
papers of Askell Love, who must have carried on correspondence
with Kelso over many years.
I am lacking the following numbers:
2, 3, 4, 7, 8, 12, 13, 22, 27, 46, 72, 73, 75, 76, 77, 80, 81-
85, 87.
I am putting together a paper about him and would like to have
photocopies of the missing papers, which are often only a page
or two long. Probably these are not all botanical papers, for he
published a lot about birds, feathers, and bioelectronic obser-
vations having to do with the migrations, homing, etc. of birds.
Thanks for that!
Bill
Dr. W.A. Weber
University of Colorado Museum
Campus Box 315
Boulder CO 80309 USA
NEW BOOK: GLOSSARY OF BRYOPHYTE TERMS
From: Stephen Timme [slt at pittstate.edu]
Malcolm, Bill & Nancy Malcolm. 2000. Mosses and other
bryophytes: An illustrated glossary. Micro-Optics Press,
Nelson, New Zealand. iv + 220 p. ISBN 0-473-06730-7 [hard
cover] Price: US$39.95
Published by:
Micro-Optics Press,
a division of Micro-Optics Ltd.
Box 320, Nelson, New Zealand
Available from:
Timber Press, Inc. The Haseltine Building,
133 S.W. Second Ave., Suite 450,
Portland, OR 97204, USA
Tel.: 1-800-327-5680 or 1-503-227-2878,
Fax: 1-503-227-3070
Web: http://www.timberpress.com
The Malcolms have produced a glossary of bryophyte terms that is
long overdue. This illustrated glossary is packed with the
majority of terms associated with moss, liverwort and hornwort
characteristics. Most are illustrated with color plates. For
characteristics that are highly variable, the authors include
several color plates to illustrate the variability among the
bryophytes. These should give at least the beginning student of
bryology a better feel for the characteristic under study. Each
plate is titled by species name, characteristic (in bold-face),
and a scale of measurement. There is a brief introduction and
following the text a reference to some literature for further
reading. This is followed by an index to the illustrations by
species name. The results of this text is obviously the efforts
of years of study and developing photographic techniques. This
reference will ease the frustrations often encountered by the
beginning student of bryology. It will also be an excellent
reference to the trained bryologist as well.
[This book contains 970 full-colour close-ups and micrographs
plus 22 drawings illustrating 1550 cross-referenced entries and
400 species, a comprehensive glossary and a celebration of
diversity of bryophytes.]
NEW EDITION OF BRAYSHAW'S PONDWEEDS [etc.] OF BRITISH COLUMBIA
From: Adolf Ceska [aceska at victoria.tc.ca]
Brayshaw, T.C. 2000. Pondweeds, bur-reeds and their relatives of
British Columbia: Aquatic families of monocotyledons. [2nd
edition] Royal British Columbia Museum, Victoria. 250 p.
ISBN 0-7718-9574-7 Price: CDN$ 24.95
Available from your local book stores.
If not, they can order it for you from:
Raincoast Books
9050 Shaughnessy Street
Vancouver B.C., CANADA V6P 6E5
Phone: 604 323-7100, Fax: 604 323-2600
E-mail: info at raincoast.comhttp://www.raincoast.com/
This is a revised edition of the 1985 publication (Brayshaw
1985) that was originally published by the British Columbia
Provincial Museum as Occasional Paper Series no. 26. It is a
treatment of 14 families of monocots with most of their members
being aquatic. In this edition, Dr. Chris Brayshaw deleted
several species erroneously reported in the first edition (e.g.,
_Potamogeton diversifolius_, _Sparganium glomeratum_), and added
several species that were not known in British Columbia when the
first edition was published (e.g., _Elodea callitrichoides_).
The discussion of many species has been expanded and the author
added new taxonomical treatments of certain species, such as
_Potamogeton filiformis_ and _Triglochin maritima_.
Chris Brayshaw's book appeared almost simultaneously with Crow &
Hellquist's Aquatic and wetland plants of northeastern North
America (Crow & Hellquist 2000), Flora of North America Vol. 22
(FNA editors 2000), and Kartesz' Synthesis (Kartesz 1999). When
I tried to review Chris Brayshaw's book, I found myself review-
ing these three publications and a CD-ROM, all at once.
All works more or less agree with each other in the treatment of
the genus _Potamogeton_, although Brayshaw was the only one who
did not accept the separation of _Potamogeton_ subgenus
_Coleogeton_ in the genus _Stuckenia_. I am a strong proponent
of using the stem anatomical characters for identification of
broad-leaved pondweeds, but none of the recent North American
treatments (except Ceska 1994 and 2001) employs this technique
as a routine identification tool. Brayshaw is the only one who
mentions its usefulness for identification of "eroded or other-
wise mutilated material." I believe that in British Columbia
_Potamogeton nodosus_ is less common than shown on the distribu-
tion map. It is restricted to the lower Fraser River Valley
(Hatzic Lake) and the Okanagan Valley and plants from other
areas may belong either to another species or to _Potamogeton x
sparganiifolius_ = _P. natans x P. gramineus_. Morphological
characters of this complex are sometimes so subtle that one has
to use stem anatomical characters in order to reliably identify
even the best developed specimens (Ogden 1943, Wiegleb 1990,
Ceska 1994, 2001). I have seen many specimens of broad-leaved
pondweeds that were annotated by E.C. Ogden (who developed this
identification technique) and most of them had a small pre-
printed slip on which Ogden marked his observations of stem
anatomical characters.
The genus _Stuckenia_ (=_Potamogeton_ subgen. _Coleogeton_)
requires major revision worldwide. With the introduction of
_Stuckenia filiformis_ subsp. _occidentalis_ (Chris Brayshaw is
possibly correct when he considers this subspecies a hybrid of
_S. filiformis x S. vaginata_), many specimens previously
treated as _S. vaginata_ would belong to this subspecies. The
boundary between _S. filiformis_ subsp. _occidentalis_ and _S.
vaginata_ is blurred and quite subjective. We need more studies
of this complex, and the further study may show that _S.
vaginata_ is much less common in British Columbia than shown on
Chris Brayshaw's map.
In the Flora of North America treatment, Haynes & Hellquist
reduced _Triglochin concinna_ to small plants of _Triglochin
maritima_. I am sure that botanists from the Pacific Coast of
North America will consider this a gross mistake. In his _Trig-
lochin_ treatment, Chris Brayshaw retains _T. concinna_. The
question is what _Triglochin debilis_ is. Chris Brayshaw inves-
tigated the type of this taxon and concluded that _T. debilis_
can be regarded a variety of _T. concinna_. Brayshaw devotes
about two pages to the analysis of the specimen of "_T.
debilis_" (V 170,988) that I and my wife collected at the
Osoyoos Lake. I was attracted to this plant when I saw Bill van
Dieren's collection of similar plants from the Shuswap Lake
area. I concur with Chris Brayshaw that more collecting and more
taxonomic work in _Triglochin maritima - concinna - debilis_
complex should be done. Kartesz (1999) recognized _T. concinna_
as a species distinct from _T. maritima_, but treated _T.
debilis_ as a mere synonym of _T. concinna_. I agree that it is
necessary to re-evaluate "_Triglochin debilis_" as well as the
anomalous specimens from the Interior British Columbia.
In his 1985 treatment of _Sparganium_, Chris Brayshaw published
three new combinations in _Sparganium angustifolium_. He treated
_Sparganium emersum_ as a subspecies of _Sparganium
angustifolium_. In turn, he treated _Sparganium chloropetalum_
as a variety of _S. angustifolium_ subsp. _emersum_, and _S.
multipedunculatum_ as a variety of _S. angustifolium_ subsp.
_angustifolium_. Cook & Nicholls (1986) recognized _Sparganium
angustifolium_ and _S. emersum_ as two distinct species and
synonymized _S. multipedunculatum_ with _S. angustifolium_ and
_S. chlorocarpum_ with _S. emersum_. Whilst Flora of North
America and Crow & Hellquist (2000) followed Cook & Nicholls'
treatment, Brayshaw (2000) follows his original 1985 treatment
of a single species with two subspecies and four varieties.
Kartesz (1999) reduced all four taxa into _S. angustifolium_ and
listed Chris Brayshaw's subspecies and varieties as mere
synonyms. Consequently, _Sparganium emersum_ got completely lost
from North America in Kartesz' "Synthesis". In my opinion,
_Sparganium angustifolium_ and _S. emersum_ are two distinct
species and it was a mistake that Brayshaw (2000) and Kartesz
(1999) did not follow the _Sparganium_ treatment by Cook and
Nicholls (1986).
Chris Brayshaw has an enviable gift of being able to do his own
botanical illustrations. It is a great asset when a botanist can
transform his ideas into precise botanical illustrations, and
Chris Brayshaw's illustrations belong to the best in its class.
The Royal British Columbia Museum has to be commended for pub-
lishing this treatment. I liked the return to the format close
to the B.C. Provincial Museum's favourite "Handbook" format
(although these new "Handbooks" are few inches larger than the
original Handbooks and the assignment to any series has been
dropped). It is a pity that the manuscript was not more care-
fully edited and reviewed by a plant taxonomist to avoid
misspellings such as "stiff-leafed" and other "-leafed"
pondweeds (I have never dreamt about having to correct Chris
Brayshaw's English!), citing _Triglochin debilis_ (M.E.Jones)
Love and Love as a synonym of one species and its basionym _T.
maritima_ var. _debilis_ M.E. Jones as a synonym of another
species, etc. In spite of these shortcomings, Chris Brayshaw's
book is a significant contribution to the knowledge of aquatic
monocots in British Columbia and the Pacific Northwest.
References:
Brayshaw, T.C. 1985. Pondweeds and bur-reed, and their rela-
tives: Aquatic families of monocotyledons in British Colum-
bia. Occasional Papers of the British Columbia Provincial
Museum, no. 26. Province of British Columbia, Victoria, B.C.
166 p.
Ceska, A. 1994. Potamogetonaceae. Pp. 146-151, 177-178, 184 in:
Douglas, G.W., G.B. Straley and D. Meidinger [eds.] The
vascular plants of British Columbia. Part 4 - Monocotyledons.
Special Report Series 2, B.C. Ministry of Forests, Research
Branch, Victoria. 257 p. [See BEN # 75]
Ceska, A. 2001 [in press]. Potamogetonaceae. In: Douglas, G.W.,
J. Pojar & D. Meidinger. Illustrated Flora of British Colum-
bia. Vol. 7.
Cook, C.D.K. & M.S. Nicholls. 1986. A monographic study of the
genus Sparganium (Sparganiaceae). Part 1. Subgenus Xan-
thosparganium Holmberg. Bot. Helvetica 96: 213-267.
Crow, Garrett E. & C. Barre Hellquist. 2000. Aquatic and wetland
plants of northeastern North America: a revised and enlarged
edition of Norman C. Fassett's A manual of aquatic plants.
Volume 2: Angiosperms: monocotyledons. The University of
Wisconsin Press, Madison. LV+400 p. [See BEN # 261]
Flora of North America, Editorial Committee. 2000. Flora of
North America North of Mexico, Volume 22, Magnoliophyta:
Alismatidae, Arecidae, Commelinidae (in part) and Zin-
giberidae. Missouri Botanical Garden Press, St. Louis, MO.
xxii + 352 p.
http://hua.huh.harvard.edu/FNA/
Kartesz, J.T. & C.A. Meacham. 1999. Synthesis of the North
American Flora, Version 1.0. North Carolina Botanical Garden,
Chapel Hill, NC. [CD-ROM] [See BEN # 237]
Ogden, E.C. 1943. The broad-leaved species of Potamogeton of
North America north of Mexico. Rhodora 45: 57-105, 119-163,
171-214.
Wiegleb, G. 1990. The importance of stem anatomical characters
for the systematics of the genus Potamogeton L. Flora 184:
197-208.
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