2005 THE MICHIGAN BOTANIST 169 A GUIDE TO REFERENCES FOR CURATORS OF SMALL HERBARIA Dennis W. Woodland and Pamela F. Smith Biology Department, Andrews University Berrien Springs, MI 49104-0410 [email protected] [email protected] From time to time those of us who manage herbaria will get a letter or a tele- phone call from a former student or person working for a company or agency needing information on topics like making a collection of plant voucher speci- mens, or setting up a herbarium. Perhaps you are a teacher who has arrived at an institution and found bundles of student collections from previous years, and you want to set up a teaching herbarium to go along with courses being taught. Or perhaps, you work for an environmental consulting firm and need vouchers for comparison work. So, how does one go about setting up an herbarium for student and/or local use? “What references are most helpful sitting on the shelf for iden- tification and curation of plant specimens?” We have compiled information that we feel would be helpful to an individual beginning a curatorial adventure centered in upper Mid-West North America, with emphasis on the Great Lakes region. The list of floras provided reflects this geographic area. Most information has been gleaned through experience and from some key references given below. Two books especially helpful were: Frodin, D. G. 2001. Guide to Standard Floras of the World, 2nd ed. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1100 pp., and Woodland, D. W. 2000. Contempo- rary Plant Systematics, 3rd ed. Andrews University Press, Berrien Springs, MI, 569 pp. The references we feel are a “must have” are indicated by an asterisk *. Comments explaining the use or value of a reference are given following many bibliographic entries. Herbarium Techniques *Bridson, D. & L. Forman (eds.). 1998. The Herbarium Handbook, 3rd ed. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, UK, 334 pp. This book is filled with all types of information from two senior British botanists. Croat, T. B. 1978. Survey of herbarium problems. Taxon 27: 203–218. Edwards, S. R., et al. (eds.). 1981. Pest Control in Museums: A Status Report. Association of Systematics Collections, Lawrence, KA. MacFarlane, R. B. A. 1985. Collecting and Preserving Plants for Science and Pleasure. Arco Publishing, New York, 184 pp. *Metsger, D. A. & S. C. Byers (eds.). 1999. Managing the Modern Herbarium. Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections, Washington, DC. 384 pp. This is a must read for any person thinking of doing curatorial work. 170 THE MICHIGAN BOTANIST Vol. 44 Radford, A. E., et al. 1974. Vascular Plant Systematics. Harper & Row, New York, 891 pp. This is a resource book, not a text. Zycherman, L. A. & J. R. Schrock (eds.). 1988. A Guide to Museum Pest Con- trol. Association of Systematic Collections, Washington, DC, 205 pp. Indexes for Bibliographic, Illustrative, and Nomenclatural Literature *Brummitt, R. K. 1992. Vascular Plant Families and Genera. Royal Botanic Gar- dens, Kew, UK, 804 pp. This volume lists nearly 14,000 accepted generic names, and over 10,000 other names, with their authors as currently used at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, UK. The accepted names are also listed family by family for easy reference. Greuter, W. et al. (eds.). 2000. International Code of Botanical Nomenclature (Saint Louis Code). Regnum Vegetabile Vol. 138. Koeltz Scientific Books, Koningstein, Germany. 474 pp. This is the most recent code of rules that gov- ern naming in botany as adopted by the Sixteenth International Botanical Congress in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1999. A more recent revision will be forthcoming based on the most recent congress during July 2005 in Vienna, Austria. Hyam, R. & R. Pankhurst. 1995. Plants and Their Names. A Concise Dictionary. Oxford University Press, Oxford, 545 pp. This work provides a complete ref- erence source to over 16,000 of the more commonly occurring vernacular and Latin names of plants. *Mabberley, D. J. 1997. The Plant-Book. A Portable Dictionary of the Higher Plants, second edition. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge, UK. This work is an alphabetical listing of families and genera of vascular plants. It fol- lows the Cronquist system of classification and has a layout much like Willis’ A Dictionary of Flowering Plants. It includes information on family descrip- tions, distributions, number of species, economic uses, and examples, as well as less detailed information on synonymy and tribal and subfamily levels. Pertinent recent literature is also included. This is a very handy reference. Terminology and Dictionaries *Featherly, H. I. 1954. Taxonomic Terminology of the Higher Plants. Iowa State University Press, Ames (Reprinted 1965. Hafner, New York), 166 pp. A great find on the used book market. Harrington, H. D. & L. W. Durrell. 1985. How to Identify Plants. Swallow Press, Athens, OH, 207 pp. An inexpensive paperback. *Harris, J. G. & M. W. Harris. 1994. Plant Identification Terminology, and Illus- tration Glossary. Spring Lake Publishing, Payson, Utah, 198 pp. *Jackson, B. D. 1928. A Glossary of Botanic Terms, with the Derivation and Ac- cent. Duckworth, London (Reprinted 1960. Hafner, New York), 481 pp. A great old reference dictionary that has many of the older botanical descriptive names. It is worth looking in used book outlets for a good copy. Redford, A. E., et al. 1974. Vascular Plant Systematics. Harper & Row, New York, 891 pp. *Stearn, W. T. 1992. Botanical Latin, 4th ed. David & Charles, London, 546 pp. 2005 THE MICHIGAN BOTANIST 171 and Timber Press, Portland, Oregon, 2004, paperback. Still the classic when a wee bit of Latin is needed. Specific and Comprehensive Guides Brummitt, R. K. & C. E. Powell (eds.). 1992. Authors of Plant Names. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, UK, 732 pp. This book lists nearly 30,000 authors of plant Latin names and gives a recommended standardized abbreviation for each of these authors’ names. Some biographic information is also given. *Cronquist, A. 1981. An Integrated System of Classification of Flowering Plants. Columbia University Press, New York, 1262 pp. This is a most com- prehensive study of flowering plant families, with detailed descriptions, ex- amples, illustrations, keys to the families, and fossil record information, all of which are based around Cronquist’s classification scheme, a scheme that has been largely replaced by a more recent one by the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group. This classification system can be accessed on the website of the Mis- souri Botanical Garden: <http://www.mobot.org/> and continue on to: <http://www.mobot.org/MOBOT/Research/APweb/welcome.html>. *Holmgren, P. K. et al. 1991. Index Herbariorum. Part I. The Herbaria of the World. 8th ed. New York Botanic Gardens, Bronx, New York, 693 pp. This is the most valuable guide to the world’s herbaria arranged by cities and with pertinent general information about each herbarium, including a standard acronym. It is now accessed via the website of the New York Botanic garden at: <http://www.nybg.org/>, and continue on to: <http://sciweb.nybg.org/ science2/IndexHerbariorum.asp>. Lawrence, G. H. M., et al. (eds.) 1968. B-P-H. Botanico-Periodicum-Huntianum. Hunt Botanical Library. Pittsburgh, PA (Supplementum 1991, written by G. D. R. Bridson & E. R. Smith.). This reference provides standardized abbrevi- ations to over 20,000 botanical journals and is especially helpful in identify- ing older reference citations. This guide is used by many current botanical journals as a guide for abbreviating journal literature citations. Basic Systematic texts Benson, L. 1979. Plant Classification, 2nd ed. D. C. Heath, Lexington, MA, 901 pp. *Heywood, V. H. (ed.). 1993. Flowering Plants of the World. B. T. Batford, Lon- don, 335 pp. It is said that a new edition of this lovely book is being prepared with family descriptions matching the new APG classification system. We hope the families will still have the lovely watercolor illustrations of the older edition. *Judd, W. S., et al. 2002. Plant Systematics. A Phylogenetic Approach, 2nd ed. Sinauer Assoc., Inc., Sunderland, MA, 576 pp. This book has a color image CD to over 2,200 plant images. Classifies families according to the latest APG classification. Porter, C. L. 1967. Taxonomy of Flowering Plants, 2nd ed. W. H. Freeman, San Francisco, 472 pp. Stuessy, T. F. 1990. Plant Taxonomy. Columbia Univ. Press, New York, 514 pp. *Woodland, D. W. 2000. Contemporary Plant Systematics, 3rd ed. Andrews Uni- 172 THE MICHIGAN BOTANIST Vol. 44 versity Press, Berrien Springs, MI, 569 pp. This text has the broadest geo- graphical coverage of the books listed here. It gives a more global view and discusses the greatest number of vascular plant families. It includes a CD with more than 4,700 color images. *Zomlefer, W. B. 1994. Guide to Flowering Plant Families. University of North Carolina Press, 430 pp. The textbook with the best and most varied sketches of family characters. Floras and Manuals A flora is a taxonomic treatment of all plants occurring in a geographical area. It can also refer to the plants living in a region. This area can be small, such as a nature preserve of a few hectares (or acres), or more extensive such as a re- gional, state, or country flora. Each written flora is developed following pre- determined guidelines on the type of coverage to be included. These guidelines might involve all plants or only vascular plants; only a listing of names; de- scriptions, keys, and distributions; ecological, geological, or soil information; how the flora will be used; etc. The book with all or part of this information is called a manual; in practice, the two words are used interchangeably. Bibliographies Frodin, D. G. 2001. Guide to Standard Floras of the World, 2nd ed. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1100 pp. This is a very expensive reference book and costs almost $300.00 and is normally out of reach of most herbaria.