ASBS Newsletter – Book Review

Checklist of the Mosses of Banks Peninsula, New Zealand

written by B.H. Macmillan

(From ASBS Newsletter Number 92, September 1997)

Publisher & orders: Manaaki Whenua Press, PO Box 40, Lincoln 8152, New Zealand [Fax +64 3 325 2127. Email comfort@landcare.cri.nz.
Published: December 1996. ISBN 0 478 09302 0.
Specifications: soft cover, 210 mm x 147 mm, 80 pp., 3 b&w photographs, 1 drawing, 1 map.
Retail price (NZ$, including postage & packaging, for Australian and NZ customers, US$ elsewhere): $25.00. Payment with order or credit card (Visa, Bankcard, Mastercard) accepted.

Publications referred to in the text are all gathered in a general 'References' section on pages 70-75. An index to species concludes the work.

The original places of publication of names are not provided in the checklist. Their inclusion may have made the work that little more useful.

This publication may not be of interest to many readers of the ASBS Newsletter in that it does not concern flowering plants and is not focused on Australia. However, apart from the exclusion of the places of original publication (and their requirement is debatable), it is an excellent example of what a checklist should be. It is not just a list of names. It brings together and critically examines the work of previous botanists and collectors, and most importantly, records are substantiated by reference to vouchers.

The above work by Bryony Macmillan is just one of many New Zealand science books published by Manaaki Whenua Press, part of Manaaki Whenua - Landcare Research New Zealand Ltd, and their catalogue can be viewed on the World Wide Web: http://www.landcare.cri.nz/mwpress*

One aspect of note is that publication of the Flora of New Zealand Volume V, which will deal with the native and naturalised grasses, is planned for next year.

Reviewer: Philip Short

* [Edit (June 2016): Manaaki Whenua Press website is now http://www.mwpress.co.nz]