ILLUSTRATED FLORA OF EAST TEXAS - Brit - Botanical Research ...

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS/INTRODUCTION 27
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Elray Nixon, to whom this volume is dedicated, the late Lloyd Shinners, and William (Bill)
Mahler deserve special recognition for their contributions to an understanding of the flora
of East Texas. For information about Nixon, see the dedication in the front of this book; for
a list of his publications, see Appendix 24. For a biography of Shinners, see Ginsburg
(2002); for a synopsis of Shinners’ life, see Mahler (1971b); for a guide to his botanical contributions,
see Flook (1973). This East Texas flora is published as a volume of Sida, Botanical
Miscellany, which was founded by Wm. F. Mahler and Barney L. Lipscomb in 1987 in association
with the botanical journal Sida, Contributions to Botany, begun by Shinners in 1962.
Several individuals were indispensable members of the team that produced this work.
Special thanks go to Robert George for locating and scanning line drawings, producing diagrams,
laying out the illustration pages and map pages, coordinating copyright issues,
managing the project databases, producing the project newsletter, contributing several
appendices, and creating two line drawings; to Linny Heagy for giving creative direction/art
direction throughout the whole project, painting the frontispiece for the volume, creating
28 original botanical line drawings, and designing the cover; to Stuart and Scott Gentling
who created the original artwork for the dust jacket and three original paintings of bird
species extinct in East Texas; to Billie Turner for allowing use of the county distribution
maps; to Geraldine Watson who painted the frontispiece to the introduction, allowed
access to the Watson Pinelands Preserve, and contributed information on the Big Thicket;
to Cole Weatherby, an Austin College student, for managing the project web site
(www.easttexasflora.org), producing a video presentation for the project, contributing an
appendix, and assisting in a variety of ways; and to Meera Patel, an Austin College student,
for doing extensive work on the index. Special thanks are also owed to Samuel Burkett for
scanning line drawings reused from the Illustrated Flora of North Central Texas and to
Amberly Zijewski, an Austin College student, for work on derivation of scientific names,
authorities of scientific names, and literature research.
Several sections of the manuscript were generously contributed by other authors.
Thanks to Stanley Jones of the Botanical Research Center Herbarium for contributing the
treatment for the genus Carex (Cyperaceae), James Van Kley of Stephen F. Austin State
University for authoring the section of the Introduction on the Pineywoods, Chick Dolezel,
formerly Soil Scientist, U.S. Department of Agriculture, for co-authoring the section on Soils
and Soil-Related Geology, Connie Taylor of Southeastern Oklahoma State University for
allowing us to modify her key to genera of Asteraceae (Taylor 1997) (to be published in volumes
two and three), and the Oklahoma Flora Editorial Committee (Ronald J. Tyrl, Susan
C. Barber, Paul Buck, James R. Estes, Patricia Folley, Lawrence K. Magrath, Constance E.S.
Taylor, and Rahmona A. Thompson) for allowing us to modify their key to families (Tyrl et
al. 1994) (to be published in volume two). We are especially indebted to our Oklahoma colleagues
for the use of their fine key which represents many years of hard work. Thanks also
to W.C. (Bill) Carr of the Nature Conservancy of Texas, who generously supplied data on
plants endemic to Texas (Carr 2002b, 2002c), plants rare in the state (Carr 2001, 2002d),
and a checklist of the vascular plants of Travis County. We further appreciate the work of
David Creech, Robert George, Joann Karges, Mary Anne Pickens, Ray C. Telfair, II, and Cole
Weatherby, all of whom contributed appendices.
We are also particularly indebted to several other colleagues for major contributions:
Gus Hall and Marian McCarley who proofread the entire introduction; and Sonnia Hill who
proofread nearly the complete manuscript.
A number of specialists generously reviewed taxonomic treatments for this or the preceding
North Central Texas flora. These include: Daniel Austin, John Bacon, Harvey Ballard,
Theodore Barkley, Dorothy Bay, Larry Brown, Paul Brown, Martha Case, Anita Cholewa,