Short descriptions of the most influential of the botany herbals in the Vatican collection are discussed here in hypertext format. The original data (edited by kell@seq1.loc.gov) was copied by ftp from seq1.loc.gov and the fullsize images are still on that site. Nice historical site. (***)
April 20-29, 1996
I was at two conferences and did not post entries.
April 19, 1996 - Australian National Botanic Gardens Biodiversity Server
The Australian National Botanic Gardens maintains a large site on the Web devoted to the native plants of Australia. The flora is among the most isolated island floras and man has had a dramatically negative impact on it. This site and the gradens are devoted to this unusual flora in which Proteaceae and Myrtaceae abound. Rich in graphics (online and orderable--a few sets of links just yield text, but the photo CD section has beautiful plant pictures), there is information about the Gardens, the Australia flora and links to other Australian sites and biodiversity centers. An "old" site (perhaps this was the first major world garden with a web site) and it keeps getting better. (****)
Obviously this site is highly dedicated to Fuchsias, perhaps expectedly in Swedish and English. For information about growing and caring for Fuchsias, as well as properly measuring them, this is the site to see. Still a bit under construction. Site maintained by Kenneth Nilsson of the Society. (***1/2)
Kew Gardens is certainly one of the most eminent facilities of its kind in the world for its collection, displays and research. This is its Web site. Through a simple Web search engine, the entire site can be examined quickly. This site has information on its facility, an online newsletter, and information on its publications. Good information and email links to authoritative botanical information. (***1/2)
This is an online version of the brochure that was produced by the Botanical Society of America (BSA) and the American Society of Plant Taxonomists (ASPT) on career opportunities in botany. This is designed for students from high school to finishing undergraduate majors. This is a very nice, general introduction to botany as a career. (****)
April 15, 1996 - Smithsonian Catalog of Botanical Illustrations
The Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History has made available over 500 color drawings in three families: Bromeliaceae, Cactaceae, and Melastomataceae. This is part of a long-term project to make an on-line illustrated catalog of illustrations available to staff and others needing access to this information (2500 remain to be processed). This site is curated by the Botany Department's scientific illustrator, Alice Tangerini. (***1/2)
These pages provide an interesting visit with multiple options for viewing excellent photo and electron micrographs of cells and organelles. Although the site is not encyclopedic, it is innovative in options for viewing the images. One weakness is that the descriptions are frequently superficial--so don't skip your beginning biology lectures to visit this site. Virtual Cell is being developed by Matej Lexa of the University of Illinois. (***1/2) Originally: http://ampere.scale.uiuc.edu/~m-lexa/cell/cell.html
This is another collection of plant figures--this time taken from Bilder ur Nordens Flora, a flora from the turn of the century. These are based on the original colored drawings that features plant habits and important taxonomic features of the species.The figures are listed alphabetically by Norse name--this can be a slight disadvantage--but if you use the "find" key on your browser and the Latin name you can find your favorites. The quality of the drawings is reward enough. This is part of a site of classic Nordic literature and art, coordinated by the Lysator computer society at Linköping University, Sweden. (***1/2)
This is another collection of slides--this time restricted to whole vascular plants. The site is limited to whole plant views, but many are really quite nice. These are organized by family. A good resource for plant IDs and multimedia viewing. (***1/2)
This is a phenomenal collection of slides (thousands!) concerning General Botany, Dendrology, Fungi, Plant Systematics (vascular plant groups), and the Vegetation of Wisconsin. Although some of the pictures are not perfect, many are unusual and difficult to find elsewhere. They are organized alphabetically under each hierarchy (Phylum, Class, Family, etc.) This is a remarkable resource for students and teachers who want to see the plants that they are studying. [When first reviewed, this was at gopher://gopher.adp.wisc.edu:70/11/.data/.bot organized by groups and families, much as it is today. Alas, one of the last, best gophers went extinct in December 1999.] (****)
The California flora is a very special one. Rare species abound--the effect of millions of years of reproductive isolation that has caused species to diverge and separate. This site is dedicated to the protection of it and provides a detailed legislative action page, policy pages, publications, an introduction to CA plant communities, a kids page and questions. This site is the (extensive) work of David Chippen at Cal Poly. (****)
PLANTS provides the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), its clients, and cooperators with a single, electronic source for basic plant information including standardized plant names, symbols, distributions and other plant attribute information. The database currently encompasses approximately 45,000 individual taxon of vascular and nonvascular plants, plus synonyms.The principal cooperator is the Biota of North America Project under the direction of Dr. John Kartesz. (****)
This site presents a nice summary of apical dominance from a physiological and morphological view, and presents the appropriate hormone experiments to alter plant organization. Ideal for a college entry-level class. Created by Ross Koning, Department of Biology at East Connecticut State University. (****)
Part of understanding Web resources is also understanding the power of everything else that is "out there" on the Internet. There are many sites that do that. Many are encyclopedic. I choose my humble site and don't rate it. It has introductory sections on the Internet in general, Usenet newsgroups, FTPs, Gophers, WAIS, Listervs, email and the Web. It also has a very introductory part on writing WWW documents in HTML and a good search portal. Enjoy! Scott Russell, Department of Botany and Microbiology, University of Oklahoma.
April fools postings and email are a fine online tradition. This archive is an attempt
to celebrate this, and to save our humor for the next generation. It's okay to have a trivial listing once a year, isn't it? This site was constructed and maintained by David Barberi.
