international lichenological - International Association for Lichenology

14 INTERNATIONAL LICHENOLOGICAL NEWSLETTER 42 (1)
at that time which is widely used by lichen taxonomists throughout Europe, and
indeed further away. Now, 17 years later, the BLS has published a new volume
with a slightly different title which is in fact a second, revised and much enlarged
edition of the former. Therefore the new magnum opus might be best reviewed by
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notes on the back cover of the book.
The necessity for a new edition becomes clear simply by the number of 386 new
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number when taking into account that the British Isles were also at the time of
publication rightly regarded as one of the lichenologically best known regions in
the world. As a result, the number of pages has increased considerably from 710 to
1046. In general the outline of the treatments is unchanged except that genera and
species are now in a strictly alphabetical order which is in my opinion an advantage
especially in large genera. One of the much welcomed new features is the citation of
illustrations, especially colour photographs, from other reference works for almost
every species. The number of synonyms has increased according to taxonomic
changes over the last two decades but is still limited in respect of older names.
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and included in the text and in the index. The introduction has been enlarged, but the
glossary has little changed and unfortunately a few shortcomings have crept in: e.g.
acrogenous and acicular are not in alphabetical order and allanthoid and biseriate
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The number of contributers is 51 and it is of course an enormous task to edit such a
work, but I cannot avoid noting that the number of mistakes in the list of references is
rather high (e.g. Julich instead of Jülich and standing between James and Jørgensen;
wrong reference for Jørgensen (1990) as it cites Op. bot. Soc. bot. Lund 45 which is
the reference for Jørgensen (1978) - the correct one is Lichenologist 22: 213-217).
No taxonomic novelties are proposed here because all necessary changes have
been previously published in The Lichenologist. The nomenclature adopted here is
somewhat conservative in order to avoid to many changes, especially in families or
genera were the taxonomy seems to be unsettled (e.g. Buellia s. lat.).
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to get this new version soon. It is the best one can get for determining lichens in
northwestern Europe and it will also be of great value for people working far beyond.
It is certainly the culmination of lichen studies at this time (text on the back cover)
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�����������������The Lichen Flora of the Greater Sonoran Desert Region (see ILN
41(2): 20-21) or the Flora of New Zealand Lichens (see ILN 41(1): 9-10).
The Editor