China has about 2,500 species of mosses and has the richest and the most diverse moss flora in the Northern Temperate zone. This number is about 20% of all the mosses currently recognized in the world. Knowledge of the Chinese moss flora, like that of the vascular plant flora, is of importance to the understanding of the underlying dynamics of past plant migrations, vegetational history, and the significance of the local refugia in Asia. Volume 1 treats the families Sphagnaceae, Andreaceae, Archidiaceae, Ditrichaceae, Bryoxiphiaceae, Seligeraceae, Dicranaceae, and the Leucobryaceae.
China has about 2,500 species of mosses and has the richest and the most diverse moss flora in the Northern Temperate zone. This number is about 20% of all the mosses currently recognized in the world. Knowledge of the Chinese moss flora, like that of the vascular plant flora, is of importance to the understanding of the underlying dynamics of past plant migrations, vegetational history, and the significance of the local refugia in Asia. This volume treats 32 genera and 206 specific and infraspecific taxa. The following taxa are treated: Bryaceae, Mniaceae, Rhizogoniaceae, Hypnodendraceae, Aulacomniaceae, Meesiaceae, Bartramiaceae, Spiridentaceae, and Timmiaceae.
Mosses are a major component of the vegetation in ice-free coastal regions of Antarctica. They play an important role in the colonisation of ice-free terrain, accumulation of organic matter, release of organic exudates, and also provide a food and habitat resource for invertebrates. They serve as model organisms for physiological experiments designed to elucidate problems of plant cold tolerance and survival mechanisms and for monitoring biological responses to climate change. This Flora provides the first comprehensive description, with keys, of all known species and varieties of moss in the Antarctic biome. It has involved microscopic examination of around 10,000 specimens from Antarctica and, for comparison, from other continents. All species are illustrated by detailed line drawings, alongside information about their reproductive status, ecology, and distribution. This is an invaluable resource for bryologists worldwide, as well as to Antarctic botanists and other terrestrial biologists.
This is a comprehensive record of all the macrofungus found in Guangdong, China, in which 1,058 species under 239 genera, 56 families, 20 orders and 4 classes of Basidiomycotina and Ascomycotina are identified
CHINA is, indeed, the Mother of Gardens, for of the countries to which our gardens are most deeply indebted she holds the foremost place. From the bursting into blossom of the Forsythias and Yulan Magnolias in the early spring to the Peonies and Roses in summer and the Chrysanthemums in the autumn, China's contributions to the floral wealth of gardens is in evidence. To China the flower lover owes the parents of the modern Rose, be they Tea or Hybrid Tea, Rambler or Polyantha; likewise his greenhouse Azaleas and Primroses, and the fruit grower, his Peaches, Oranges, Lemons and Grapefruit. It is safe to say that there is no garden in this country or in Europe that is without its Chinese representatives and these rank among the finest of tree, shrub, herb and vine. It was in 1899 that I first set foot in China, to leave it finally in 1911. Until 1905 my collecting work was done in the interests of the well known English nursery firm of Veitch, now, alas! no longer in existence; from 1906 to 1911 it was on behalf of the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University. As a result of my plant hunting in China more than a thousand new plants are now established in gardens of America and Europe. The privilege and the opportunity were great and I claim only to have made full use of both. In the following pages will be found some account of my eleven years' wanderings and observations in the Flowery Kingdom. I have endeavored to give a general description of the flora and scenery of western China and of the manners and customs of the little known non-Chinese tribes inhabiting the Chino-Thibetan borderland. I saw China through the eyes of a nature lover and botanist interested in all phases of natural history. Ernest Henry Wilson Arnold Arboretum, Harvard University, February 15, 1929.
The book covers several topics of biodiversity researches and uses, containing 17 chapters grouped into 5 sections. It begins with an interesting chapter considering the ways in which the very biodiversity could be thought about. Noteworthy is the chapter expounding pretty original "creativity theory of ecosystem". There are several chapters concerning models describing relation between ecological niches and diversity maintenance, the factors underlying avian species imperilment, and diversity turnover rate of a local beetle group. Of special importance is the chapter outlining a theoretical model for morphological disparity in its most widened treatment. Several chapters consider regional aspects of biodiversity in Europe, Asia, Central and South America, among them an approach for monitoring conservation of the regional tropical phytodiversity in India is of special importance. Of interest is also a chapter considering the history of the very idea of biodiversity emergence in ecological researches.
