New Species Syndrome in Indian Pteridology and the Ferns of Nepal

This book tackles a major problem in modern fern-botany, the increasing practice of naming mistaken "new species" etc. Aspects and origins of the problem are discussed and followed by a comprehensive, annotated list of incorrect names given since Independence in 1947 to pteridophytes occurring in the Indian subcontinent, showing where errors were made and what are hoped to be the correct names. The list includes careful and fully detailed taxonomic reasoning in relation to genera and especially species, the identity of type-specimens, the application of the latest International Code of Botanical Nomenclature and the existence of earlier names from various regions of Asia. Over 2,000 names are mentioned in shortly under 100 of the accepted genera and nearly 70 important and necessary new names are given, or new taxa described. Many new records of less known Himalayan ferns are given, resulting from the author's many years of detailed research in British and other European herbaria, as well as 20 years of Himalayan botanical collection and field-observation. Many of the new records concern Nepal, for which there is a special appendix, and from where a number of more easterly elements have been found to reach a previously unknown western limit to their range. A detailed reference-list and comprehensive index are given and the book starts with a dedication and appreciation of his colleague for 20 years, the late Professor Tadeus Reichstein, LI. Nob., of Basel, Switzerland. This book is aimed at the specialist and deals with the detailed elucidation of many persistent nomenclatural problems in ferns in order to help clear the way towards the eventual production of an accurate Pteridophyte-Flora of the whole Indian subcontinent. In also drawing widely on and correlating research on ferns in China and Japan it is highly relevant to the study of pteridophytes throughout Asia.