Subject: BEN # 96

From: [email-masked] (Adolf Ceska)
Date: 27 Mar 1995 07:17:29 -0800

BBBBB    EEEEEE   NN   N             ISSN 1188-603X
BB   B   EE       NNN  N
BBBBB    EEEEE    NN N N             BOTANICAL
BB   B   EE       NN  NN             ELECTRONIC
BBBBB    EEEEEE   NN   N             NEWS

No. 96                               March 27, 1995

[email-masked]        Victoria, B.C.
-----------------------------------------------------------
 Dr. A. Ceska, P.O.Box 8546, Victoria, B.C. Canada V8W 3S2
-----------------------------------------------------------

GARRY OAK (QUERCUS GARRYANA) AND WINTER BIRDS
From: "Gross, Eric {co-op}" <[email-masked]>

I  am  working  on my honours thesis, winter bird communities in
urban Garry Oak (Quercus garryana) fragments and have  had  some
difficulty  finding literature incorporating Garry Oak and other
West  Coast  habitats  (e.g.,  Douglas  Fir)  and  winter  birds
(presence/absence and abundance/density). If anyone knows of any
research  that has been published dealing with this subject area
or summer birds and oak/other West Coast habitats  I  would  ap-
preciate if you could direct me to them.

   Eric Gross
   1811 Teakwood Rd.
   Victoria  B.C. Canada
   V8N 1E4

WHAT'S NEW IN VASCULAR PLANTS OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST

Botrychium  lineare  W.H.  Wagner  -  New species of a Moonwort,
known from Oregon (type locality), Idaho,  Montana,  California,
Colorado,  Quebec,  and  New  Brunswick. Related to B. campestre
from  which  it  differs  by  having  linear  segments  of   the
trophophore,  branched in larger forms. Habitat: grassy areas in
the subalpine zone. (Wagner, W.H.,  Jr.  &  F.S.  Wagner.  1995.
Another widely disjunct, rare and local North American Moonwort.
Amer. Fern J. 84(1): 5-10.)

Franklin's Sedge, Carex franklinii, cannot be distinguished from
Carex  petricosa  and  Carex petricosa var. petricosa should in-
clude C. franklinii as a synonym. C.  petricosa  var.  petricosa
occurs  in  the  western part, C. petricosa var. misandroides in
the eastern part of North America.  (Ball,  P.W.  &  M.  Zoladz.
1994.  The  taxonomy of Carex petricosa [Cyperaceae] and related
species in North America. Rhodora 96: 295-310.)

Cabomba    caroliniana    (Cabombaceae),    Murdannia     keisak
(Commelinaceae),  and  Lastenia  minor (Asteraceae) reported new
for Washington, Acorus calamus (Araceae),  Cabomba  caroliniana,
and  Mimulus ringens (Scrophulariaceae) reported new for Oregon.
(Madrono 41(4): 330-333. 1994)

THE GEOLOGY OF SOUTHERN VANCOUVER ISLAND: A FIELD GUIDE

by C.J. Yorath & H.W.  Nasmith  (1995)  was  published  for  the
Geological  Association  of Canada, Pacific Section by Orca Book
Publishers, P.O. Box 5626, Station "B", Victoria,  B.C.,  Canada
V8R 6S4. 172 p. ISBN 1 55143-032-0 [paperback] CDN$14.95

LIST OF INTERACTIVE IDENTIFICATION PROGRAMS
From:  Mike Dallwitz <[email-masked]>, originally posted on
      TAXACOM <[email-masked]>

I don't have a comprehensive list, but here are a few.  Many  of
them  are  commercial (i.e. not shareware or freeware). Some are
available only with data  sets,  that  is,  you  can't  buy  the
program  and  construct  your own package - you must produce the
package in collaboration with the software supplier.

ASKATAXA
Fred Rhoades, Biology Department, Western Washington University,
Bellingham, WA 98225, USA. Email: [email-masked]

CABIKEY
Ian White, CAB International, Wallingford, Oxon  OX10  8DE,  UK.
Phone: +44 491 83 2111, Fax: +44 491 83 3508

FLORA
Eirene  Williams,  Seale-Hayne  Dept  of Land Use, University of
Plymouth, Newton Abbot, Devon TQ12 6NQ, UK. Fax: +44 626 32 5605

INTKEY
Shareware, available (with  several  data  sets)  by  gopher  or
anonymous ftp from the following Internet hosts.
   muse.bio.cornell.edu (directory: /pub/delta)
   spider.ento.csiro.au (directory: /delta)
Mike  Dallwitz,  CSIRO  Division  of  Entomology,  GPO Box 1700,
Canberra ACT 2601,  Australia.  Fax:  +61  6  246  4000,  Email:
[email-masked]

LINNAEUS II
ETI, University of Amsterdam, Mauritskade 61, NL 1092 AD Amster-
dam,   The   Netherlands.   Fax:   +31   20   525  7238,  Email:
[email-masked]

MEKA
Christopher Meacham, [email-masked], Museum  Infor-
matics  Project,  501  Banway  Building,  Univ.  of  California,
Berkeley, CA 94720 USA

ONLINE
Richard J. Pankhurst, Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh  EH3  5LR,
UK. Fax: +44 31 552 0382, Email: [email-masked]

PLATO
Christine Leon, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Richmond, Surrey TW9
3AB, England

POLLY
Trevor  Whiffin,  Department  of  Botany,  La  Trobe University,
Bundoora, Vic 3083, Australia

TAXASOFT
(Iteractive identification directly from DELTA format and Binary
format <ddproc.exe for DOS available from the net>)
Eric Gouda, Jungfrau 107, NL-3524 WJ Utrecht,  The  Netherlands.
Email: [email-masked] [Added by E. Gouda]

XID
XID  Services, Inc., Post Office Box 272, Pullman, WA 99163, USA
- Phone/Fax: (509)332-2989 [Added by AC]

XPER
Jacques Lebbe, Service de Me'decine  Nucle'aire,  Hoital  Brous-
sais, 93 rue Didot, 75014 Paris, France

INTERACTIVE IDENTIFICATION SOFTWARE II
From:  Jim  Croft  <[email-masked]>, originally also on TAXACOM
      <[email-masked]>

Not really an application for a home PC (although I suppose  you
could  cram  it  in),  but you might be interested in the smarts
developed    by    Andrew    Taylor    ([email-masked],
http://www.cse.unsw.edu.au//) at the University of NSW.

Andrew, a computer science engineer rather than a botanist, took
some  English  language  botanical  descriptions (Eucalyptus and
Angophora from the Flora of Australia), minced them through some
clever natural  language  processing  algorithms,  and  reversed
engineered a more or less recognizable DELTA dataset.

He  made  the dataset queryable on the WWW with clients/browsers
with forms cabability (Mosaic, Netscape, etc.) both as a set  of
independent menus and a set of check boxes.

Using  some nifty lateral thinking, he figured one could use the
same algorithm to parse an arbitrary description of a plant, and
then match the result of this description  against  the  already
parsed  dataset. The result is a dialog box in which you write a
natural language description of the plant  and  let  the  server
find the best matches for you.

You can find this application on:

   http://www.cse.unsw.edu.au//interfaces.html

This  is  research in progress at a computer engineering school,
and the server is often under a lot of strain and not available,
but it is worth having a look at the outline and the interfaces.

COMMUNICATE EFFECTIVELY VIA ELECTRONIC MAIL

Angell, D. & B. Heslop. 1994.  The  Elements  of  E-mail  Style:
      Communicate  Effectively  via  Electronic  Mail.  Addison-
      Wesley Publishing Co., New York. 157 p. US$ 12.95 ISBN  0-
      201-62709-4 [paperback]

 ...."is  the  first  practical guide to written electronic com-
munication.  It  simplifies  and  summarizes  essential  writing
techniques  so  you can upgrade your writing skills and see your
e-mail make maximum impact in minimal time."

ROCK AND ALPINE PLANTS DISCUSSION LIST: ALPINE-L

ALPINE-L is an Electronic Mailing List on Rock Gardening,  Dwarf
and Alpine Plants, and Their Botany

To subscribe, send to

   [email-masked]

the following message:

   subscribe alpine-l Firstname Lastname City Hardiness-zone

For example:

   subscribe alpine-L Reginald Farrar WashingtonDC Zone7a

First  published, daily, electronically, by Harry Dewey, Feb. 6-
17, 1995, as: RGJ, the Rock Gardening Journal

Listowner (Netherlands):
   Eric Gouda, curator, Botanic Gardens,  University of Utrecht.
   Jungfrau 107                   OR      Botanic Gardens
   NL-3524WJ Utrecht                      University of Utrecht
   The Netherlands                        P. O. Box 80.162
                                          NL-3508TD Utrecht
                                          The Netherlands

Listowner (United States):
Harry Dewey, editor, Patowmack Papers, newsletter of the Potomac
      Valley
   Chapter of the North American Rock Garden Society.
   4605 Brandon Lane, Beltsville MD 20705-2624 USA
   [email-masked]          [email-masked]
   Tel.: 301 937-1446
   Fax: 301 595-5468 (by appointment)

PANAX - GINSENG DISCUSSION LIST
From: Sally Abbott <[email-masked]>

The B.C.  Ministry  of  Agriculture,  Fisheries  and  Food,  and
University College of the Cariboo in Kamloops, B.C., invite your
participation in PANAX -- a discussion group for people involved
in the production, processing and use of Panax spp. and Siberian
ginseng.  We  look  forward  to  an  exchange  of information on
primary and value-added  production  as  well  as  research  and
extension.

To sign on to PANAX, address an email message to:

        [email-masked]

In the body of the message, type the one-line command:

        subscribe panax Firstname Lastname

To communicate with the group, address your messages to:

        [email-masked]

For further information, contact:

   Al Oliver, BSA, P.Ag.
   [email-masked]

   Ron Smith, Ph.D.
   [email-masked]