From the issue dated November 12, 1999

BOOKMARK A Web Site Catalogues the New York Botanical Garden's Vascular Plants By BIANCA P. FLOYD Researchers throughout the world can use an on-line catalogue of more than 67,000 vascular-plant type specimens that are housed at the New York Botanical Garden. Vascular plants are those, such as ferns, seed-bearing plants, and conifers, that have a system of vessels for circulating water and food. A "type" is a specimen selected to serve as a reference point when a newly discovered plant is named. The botanical garden's herbarium, in which the specimens are stored, is the largest in the Western Hemisphere, says Barbara Thiers, its associate director. "We are one of the most heavily utilized herbariums in the world." Botanists have traditionally borrowed original specimens from the herbarium, using them for studies of biodiversity and diseases, as well as to determine if a plant collected in the field belongs to a known species or represents a discovery. Each record in the catalogue contains the name of the specimen, the location where it was found, a description of its habitat, the name of the collector, and an image of the specimen. Making the plant data base available on the Web not only offers researchers easier access to it, but also will lessen wear and tear on the original specimens and reduce the time specimens are out on loan, says Ms. Thiers. The data base could be particularly useful to scientists in developing countries, who may have computers and Internet connections but may lack access to specimens that originated in their regions, says Ms. Thiers. Most of the early botanical collecting in Brazil, for example, was done by researchers from Germany, England, and the United States who took plants back to their own countries and deposited the specimens there. "Some of these countries can't borrow the specimens, because they don't have the money for postage to send them back," says Ms. Thiers. "Now we never collect in the host country without leaving a duplicate." While the botanical garden is not the first institution to create an on-line plant data base (The Chronicle, October 1), it is striving to make its site especially useful. "We can make the specimen available in whatever way a researcher wants," Ms. Thiers says. The project involves putting nearly 75,000 specimens on line. Eventually, the site will also make available digitized copies of books by early Western explorers, and will provide links from plant images to scholarly articles that first described new species. http://chronicle.com Section: Information Technology Page: A50 Easy-to-print version E-mail this article