Vines and Climbing Plants of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands

16
Vines and Climbing Plants of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands
book and contributed greatly to it through her
corrections and suggestions on the first draft.
Similarly, I thank various colleagues, experts in
specific taxonomic groups, for the help they gave
me; among them are Christiane Anderson
(MICH), Daniel F. Austin (FAU), Barry T.
Hammel (MO), Dave Lellinger (US), James
Luteyn (NY), Mike Nee (NY), Lauren Raz (NY),
Harold Robinson (US), and Charlotte M. Taylor
(MO). I also express my appreciation to those
colleagues who have assisted diligently in locating
numerous collections deposited in their respective
herbaria and in making them available for study
through loans or electronic images: Jackie
Kallunki (NY), Thomas A. Zanoni (NY), Eugenio
Santiago (UPR), J. Carlos Trejo (UPR), Frank
Axelrod (UPRRP), José L. Chabert (SJ), and Marc
Pignal (P). I thank Christiane Feuillet (US) for
her help in locating some of the original
descriptions deposited in the library of the
Department of Agriculture in Beltsville,
Maryland, Scott A. Mori (NY) and James Luteyn
(NY) for the loan of various illustrations for use
in this book, and Alice Tangerini for her support
in the processing of electronic images, designing
the front cover, assisting on questions regarding
images, and handling and modifying some of the
original illustrations prepared by Bobbi Angell.
My special thanks to Mark T. Strong (US),
who has diligently accomplished the numerous
tasks related to the care and handling of the
herbarium specimens as well as the database, the
conversion of the illustrations to electronic format,
the incorporation of the figure legends, and
proofing of the English language edition. Finally
I thank Bobbi Angell (NY) for having agreed to
illustrate the present work both accurately and
artistically, as well as her splendid company and
friendship during field studies.
This book was made possible by the financial
support of the Smithsonian Institution,
Washington, DC, through the Biological Surveys
and Inventories Program, the Walcott Fund of the
Department of Botany, which financed a large
number of the illustrations, the International
Institute of Tropical Forestry, Río Piedras, Puerto
Rico, and the Atherton Seidell Grant Program at
the Smithsonian Institution for providing funding
for the translation of this work from Spanish into
English.