OPTIMA Newsletter 38

for the final editing and proofreading. But
then, very likely the greater part of the improvement
was stimulated by the publication
of the book. So for my part I would like to
absolve the editors from the charge of precipitation,
and rather encourage them to
prepare a new, revised edition pretty soon.
So far goes the promised leniency.
There is one aspect of the book, however,
that I must criticise: nomenclature. In the
introduction, a considerable number of new
names, including newly described species and
even a new genus, are proposed. (In fact,
and rather unnecessarily, they all are proposed
twice.) Some of them are definitely
needed, others are a matter of opinion and
will have to stand the test of time; but a few
are badly flawed. I hope that no one in his
good senses is going to adopt the awful
“Peucedanum carvifolium-chabraei”, an illegitimate
creation based on a non-existent purported
basionym; Sixalix atropurpurea subsp.
grandiflora is based on a name without definite
rank and, while validly published, is
unnecessary; Crepis bivonana, apart from
being wrongly spelled, cannot be based on
its alleged basionym, which is illegitimate,
although it can be used as a new name dating
from 2005; Filago tyrrhenica is not new
as it had been validly published already in
1963; and there may be more of the sort.
W.G.
65. 64BThomas WILHALM, Harald NIKLFELD
& Walter GUTERMANN – Katalog der
Gefäßpflanzen Südtirols. [Veröff.
Naturmus. Südtirol, 3.] – Folio, Wien &
Bolzano, 2006 (ISBN 978-3-85256-325-
1). 215 pages, tables, 2 maps, 3 blackand-white
photographs; hard cover.
If any checklist deserves the attribute
critical, the present one does. It deals with
the flora of what is presently the Bolzano
Province but is still widely known by its
traditional designation South Tyrol, used in
the title. The last previous floristic inventory
of South Tyrol was included in Dalla Torre
Publications
& Sarnthein’s “Flora von Tirol”, completed
in 1913, almost a century ago. Its update and
revision, here presented, was thus overdue.
Exactly 3000 named taxa (species and
subspecies) are listed. This figure includes
190 taxa excluded for various reasons, 251
that are no longer present (100 native but
extinct, 151 erstwhile casuals), 410 alien and
2169 native taxa. As family names and circumscriptions
are currently quite unstable,
the authors have – reasonably I believe –
opted for a single alphabetic order for all
genera and species, with appropriate crossreferences
when different generic concepts
are in use. Readers would, however, fare
better if the generic names that appear as
running titles in the margin did correspond
to the taxon that appears on the first line,
rather than to the first (left) or last (right)
generic headline on the page.
The checklist results from cooperation
between the South Tyrol Nature Museum in
Bolzano and the Department of Biogeography,
Institute of Botany, of Vienna University.
In incorporates data from the floristic
mapping project for the area, kept in a database
at the said Museum. By consequence
the list is very much up to date, also with
respect to status assessment of alien species.
Nomenclatural accuracy is vouched for by
the participation of Walter Gutermann as
member of the author team.
W.G.
66. 65BGirolamo GIARDINA, Francesco Maria
RAIMONDO & Vivienne SPADARO – A
catalogue of plants growing in Sicily.
[Bocconea (ISSN 1120-4060), 20.] – Herbarium
Mediterraneum Panormitanum,
Palermo, 2007 (ISBN 978-88-7915-
022-4). 582 pages; paper.
At Girolamo Giardina’s premature
death, in 2006, the bulky manuscript of this
inventory of the Sicilian flora was still a
torso. The thankless task of completing and
editing the text, so as to make it suited for
publication, was left to his co-authors,
Franco Raimondo and Vivienne Spadaro.
2009 OPTIMA Newsletter No. 38 (37)