OPTIMA Newsletter 38

Publications
“Herbarium Palmarum”. It was bequeathed
to FI by Beccari’s student Martelli and arrived
at the Florence Herbarium in 1937,
three years after Martelli’s death. It comprises
6804 herbarium specimens, 214 carpological
samples, 1205 drawings, and 1368
photographical plates, received by Beccari
and his pupil Martelli from all over the
world. A couple of later additions by Florence
botanists are also present. [Conversely,
some specimens, belonging rightfully to
Beccari’s collection but filed by mistake in
the general FI herbarium, are apparently not
covered here.]
The information is presented in two
specimen lists, one for each herbarium, and
in additional lists of collectors and genera
they collected, countries where they collected,
type specimens, etc. A useful feature, for
practical purposes, are numerous label facsimiles
at the end. The special-cover edition
of the work is available from the authors
against prior refund of postage cost.
W.G.
133. 132BGiorgio PADOVANI & Piero CUCCUINI
– The Florentine herbaria – Scholars
and materials II. Update (1993-2005),
addenda et corrigenda (1945-1992), to the
origins of the H.C.I. (1842-1877). [Pubblicazioni
della Sezione Botanica “F.
Parlatore”, 152.] – Sezione Botanica
“F. Parlatore”, Museo di Storia Naturale,
Università di Firenze, 2006. 103 pages, 3
graphs, 111 handwriting samples; paper.
This inventory of botanists who consulted
material of the Florence Herbaria,
either as visitors or by requesting loans or
specimen photographs, is an update of Cuccuini’s
earlier publication on the same subject,
“Gli erbari fiorentini (FI e FT) nell’ultimo
mezzo secolo (1945-1992). Studiosi e
materiali”, published in 1995 (see OPTIMA
Newslett. 36: (55-56). 2002). It adds the data
for the years 1993 to 2005 (inclusive), and
in separate listings it corrects and complements
those for the previous 50 years. As
before, the information is arranged, first by
botanists, then by taxa studied, and finally
by countries and institutions.
One would expect this information to be
automatically produced from a database, but
apparently this is not so; otherwise, it would
be hard to explain the discrepancy between
the same data in different lists. Making the
test for Berlin, I find H. Scholz correctly
spelled (twice) then misspelled Scholtz
(third list), a fate shared by M. Heilmeyer
whose initial becomes B., whereas the misspelling
of the name as Hedmeyer is consistent.
F. Areces Berazaín, a Cuban guest in
Berlin, will be hard put to recognise her own
name as it is (consistently) misspelt here.
Mind you: this is not a criticism of the authors;
much more likely, the fault will be
with the visitors’ handwriting or carelessness
of clerical staff processing loan requests.
The examples show, however, that much
critical screening is necessary before a reliable
list of this kind can be produced.
At the end, as a most pleasant surprise,
we find not only the early visitors of the
Herbarium Centrale Italiano listed, drawn
from the “golden book” of Filippo Parlatore;
but also their autographic entries in that
book in facsimile, an all but complete sample
of handwritings of Europe’s leading
botanists of the time.
W.G.
134. 133BLaura SETTESOLDI, Marcello TAR-
DELLI & Mauro RAFFAELLI – The
types of the Tropical Herbarium of
Florence. Volume II: Dicotyledons
(Piperaceae to Euphorbiaceae). – Centro
Studi Erbario Tropicale, Università
degli Studi di Firenze [Pubblicazione
No. 98], Firenze, 2004. 104 pages; laminated
cover.
The first instalment of the type register
of the Tropical Herbarium in Florence (now
part of Florence University, as a “Centro
Studi”) was published in 2001 and comprised
the monocots (see OPTIMA Newslett.
(70) OPTIMA Newsletter No. 38 2009