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the families of Cyperaceae-like plants (Juncaceae,
Eriocaulaceae—here spelled Eriocaulonaceae—
and Poaceae) plus keys to and illustrations of the
Namibian species of Juncus and Eriocaulon.
The authors are to be congratulated on tackling
such a daunting task. As noted in the introduction,
this is only the first step towards a well-researched
Flora. Much more taxonomic and nomenclatural
research—especially tracking down of type specimens—has
to be done before that goal is achieved.
Although the present publication is designed for
use in the field and by non-specialists, with simplified
terminology, it should encourage people to
collect and identify material and to build up the
specimen base in WIND.
On paging through the book I came across a few
glitches and inconsistencies which are perhaps
forgivable as it was produced in a fairly short time.
For example, Dinter 7599 is listed as Cyperus
foliaceus, a tropical species. In Podlech Dinter
7599 is cited as C. tenuispica and the duplicate in
PRE is definitely that species. To sort this out
sheets at M, PRE and WIND would need to be
compared. And that is only one of the 168 listed
species! There is a strange and incorrect reference
to Rendle (Bibliography p. 90). It is a pity that the
list of species (Appendix 1, pp. 91–96) is based on
the published version of PRECIS, which is severely
outdated, while an electronic version is
available which is continuously updated. Unfortunately
the genus Monandrus Vorster—still unpublished
from Vorster’s 1978 D.Sc. thesis—has been
included here. These problems aside, it is a useful
book to have and I look forward to trying the keys
on Namibian material.
World Economic Plants: a standard reference.
Wiersema, J.H. & León, B. 1999. CRC Press,
Boca Raton, Florida. ISBN 0-8493-2119-0. 749 pp.
Hard cover. 286 x 220 mm. Price US$125-00.
This authoritative work includes nearly 10 000
entries on vascular plant taxa which are considered
to be of economic importance. The first and major
part of the book (pp. 1–536) is a Catalogue of
these plants, listed alphabetically by genus, species,
and, where applicable, infraspecific name;
SABONET News Vol. 4 No. 2 August 1999
cultivars are excluded.
A big plus is that the
catalogue is very easy
to use, with large font
size and doublecolumned
text contributing
to legibility,
while abbreviations
used are obvious ones
and do not require
paging back to the
beginning for explanations.
It is easy to find
the entry for a particular taxon as the genus,
species and infraspecific names are in bold, with
the genus name, where it first occurs, in bold
capitals. Individual entries comprise the currently
accepted name of the taxon (including author
names) on the first line. The following line lists
synonyms, if any, in italics, then on the next line
multilingual common names are listed, with the
preferred one underlined. The next line details the
economic importance of the plant, with the final
line briefly listing world-wide distribution.
The second part is a comprehensive Index of
Common Names (pp. 537–749) relating to the
entries in the Catalogue.
The authors, Drs Wiersema and León, are plant
taxonomists employed by the Agricultural Research
Service of the United States Department of
Agriculture (USDA-ARS). Their compilation is
based on many critically evaluated sources, which
are freely acknowledged. The book had its beginnings
in “A checklist of names for 3 000 vascular
plants of economic importance”, first published
1977 by Dr. E.A. Terrell, to whom the present
volume is dedicated. Many other publications
were consulted, as well as plant specialists worldwide.
Various criteria used for inclusion are
explained in the Introduction, but for me the most
noteworthy factor is the global nature of the data.
The information published here is an extract of a
much larger database accessible on the World
Wide Web at http://www.ars-grin.gov/npgs/tax/
taxecon.html. (For more information on the web
site, see From the Web in this issue.)
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