From Plant Press, Vol. 11, No. 4 from October 2008.
By Laurence J. Dorr and Dan H. Nicolson
TL-2 is a deceptively simple abbreviation for a multi-volume publication that is enormously valuable to systematic botanists (and zoologists) and a publication whose scope has few parallels in natural history. Its full title, Taxonomic Literature: A selective guide to botanical publications and collections with dates, commentaries and types (second edition), also is understated and does not adequately convey the full measure of what these volumes deliver. Simply put TL-2 is a guide to the literature of systematic botany published between 1753 and 1940. When completed later this year TL-2 will comprise 15 volumes published over the course of 32 years. There will be a total of 11,318 pages devoted to biographical and bibliographical analyses of 37,600 titles published by 9,072 authors. The publication is one of several projects supported by the International Association for Plant Taxonomy (IAPT) and one which from its inception has been closely tied to the Smithsonian Institution, especially the U.S. National Herbarium.
TL-2 deals, as far as publications are concerned, with books, pamphlets, series, and other bibliographically independent and limited entities, but not with open-ended periodical or serial publications. Although the temporal coverage is more or less defined by the years 1753 and 1940, there is a special emphasis on the period between 1870 and 1914, a period in which descriptive plant taxonomy reached its zenith and for which no comprehensive bibliography is available. The beginning date corresponds with the starting date for most plant scientific names, viz. the Species Plantarum (1 May 1753) of Linnaeus. (Critical earlier works by pre-Linnaean authors are included in TL-2 so that one can interpret Linnaean protologues). The ending date, 1940, is more arbitrarily defined and corresponds to the date when changes in publication and distribution made most botanical titles widely available. Inasmuch as the intent is to provide information on titles of interest to botanists there are no restrictions on language. The majority of publications analyzed are in German, English, French and Latin, but publications in languages that are less commonly utilized such as Catalan and Romansh also are included.
Entries in TL-2 are organized by author. In addition to a brief biography and a proposed form of citation for the author’s surname, information is conveyed as to where an author’s herbarium and types are deposited. This is followed by references to this author that can be found in standard reference works and then journal articles or books about the author and his (or her) works. Eponymy, if any, is cited. Typically this takes the form of plant generic names (or geographic place names) based on the author’s surname. Following these materials the author’s publications are included as numbered entries arranged in chronological order. This is the heart of TL-2. The full title of a book (or off print) is given with a suggested short-title and abbreviation of short-title for use in taxonomic publications. If a book was published in parts, the paging of parts and their dates are given. If plates are present their numbering and dates are provided. Libraries where copies of books were seen by the authors of TL-2 are stated. (Over 100 libraries were consulted for this project). Finally, references and reviews of the book are noted. This information is often invaluable in resolving the complicated publication histories of books that have appeared in parts over time or in multiple editions sometimes also issued in different languages.
TL-2 is an indispensable tool for the practicing taxonomist. Every taxonomist, without exception, who attempts to identify a work whose title may be less than precise, determine the date that a given work was published (essential for establishing priority of names, a concept that has been utilized in botanical nomenclature since Linnaeus), or determine the authorship of a work (and hence the authorship of a name) must consult TL-2. TL-2 saves researchers time; it allows for standard citations of authors, titles, and dates of publication (important for sharing information via computer files); and since it is a guide it saves librarians time in locating which major institutions hold copies of the work in question and researchers time in answering questions regarding the nature of important works held by a select few libraries.
TL-2 is frequently the starting point for investigators (historians and biologists) interested in understanding important expeditions or the development of scientific ideas. On a more practical basis, TL-2 is a standard adopted by the Taxonomic Database Working Group (TDWG), an organization sanctioned by the International Union of Biological Sciences (IUBS) devoted to establishing international collaboration among biological database projects so as to promote the wider and more effective dissemination of information about the world’s heritage of biological organisms for the benefit of the world at large. TL-2 also invariably is listed by botanical (and biological) journals as the standard by which author’s names and titles should be abbreviated.
The genesis of TL-2 goes back over 50 years. In the 1950s, the Dutch botanist Frans A. Stafleu (1921-1997) began a card index of plant taxonomic literature in support of work toward a revision of the fourth edition of the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature (1952) and the verification of generic names cited therein. This card file expanded rapidly when the IAPT committed to preparing an Index Nominum Genericorum (an index to generic names of plants and fungi, and their types). In 1964, Grady Webster (1927-2005) an American botanist visiting Stafleu in Utrecht, The Netherlands, complained that it was unfair of Stafleu to have so much useful information confined to his office. At that point in time, the best guide to plant taxonomic literature was the second edition of Pritzel’s Thesaurus Literaturae Botanicae (1872-1877). Webster’s comment inspired Stafleu to write and publish a modest volume entitled Taxonomic Literature (TL) (1967) based on his card file. Almost immediately, there was international pressure to publish an enlarged and more detailed second edition. In 1973, Stafleu committed to such a project.
In beginning his revision of TL, Stafleu received an offer of assistance from Richard S. Cowan (1921-1997) who had just stepped down after eight years as Director of the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, and who was hoping to return to systematic research in the U.S. National Herbarium. Initially Cowan thought only to assist Stafleu with research in libraries in the United States, but he soon became a full partner when he recognized that the enterprise had such great value for the discipline of plant taxonomy. Their research consisted in assembling an archive of photocopies that includes annotated title pages, and biographical and bibliographical references from selected journals. This archive (769 linear feet of documents) is deposited now in the Library of the New York Botanical Garden, Bronx, New York. (As a point of comparison the Washington Monument is a mere 555 linear feet tall!). Cowan was principally responsible for surveying the libraries of Washington, D.C. and vicinity, especially those of the Smithsonian Institution, the United States Department of Agriculture (Beltsville, Maryland), and the Library of Congress. Together, Cowan and Stafleu also spent significant periods of time working in the libraries of the New YorkBotanical Garden and the MissouriBotanical Garden.
The first of the seven volumes of TL-2, a volume treating authors with surnames A-G, was completed without external grant support and published in 1976. This lack of support limited the range of libraries that could be surveyed. The utility of the work was manifest and once National Science Foundation (NSF) support was forthcoming, the depth of coverage of volumes two to seven (authors with surnames H-Z) was substantially improved. Stafleu and Cowan continued to collect materials pertaining to authors with surnames A-G while researching volumes two to seven and when volume seven was published in 1988 it was already decided to rectify the shortcomings of volume one by publishing supplements to the first volume. By the time volume seven was published Cowan had retired and moved to Australia. He chose not to play a role in preparing any of the supplements.
Stafleu recruited Erik A. Mennega (1923-1998) to assist him in preparing the supplements to TL-2. Mennega, who was then retired, had been a plant taxonomist at the Botanic Gardens of the University of Utrecht. Together he and Stafleu researched and wrote supplements one through six (authors with surnames A-E), which were published from 1992 to 2000, the last two posthumously. Sadly, in a span of less than three month’s time the principals in the original project (Stafleu and Cowan) and supplements (Stafleu and Mennega) all died. Norbert Kilian and Ralf Hand, both at the Botanic Garden and Botanical Museum in Berlin, assumed responsibility for bringing manuscripts for supplements five and six to completion. The project may have ended here except that in 2000 Dan H. Nicolson contemplating useful projects to pursue in retirement decided to finish the supplements. He recruited Laurence J. Dorr to help him.
Initially Nicolson utilized the TL-2 archive in the New YorkBotanical Garden to construct the outline of what became the final two supplements. Once the data on some 600 authors were assembled, Dorr became more fully vested in the project in late 2005, and proceeded to use all of the electronic catalogues and databases that have been created in recent years to flesh out these treatments and develop targeted lists of books and offprints to examine in selected libraries. (This was a radical departure from using photocopy machines). Much of the final work involved using resources in Washington, D.C., including the Smithsonian Institution Libraries, Library of Congress, National Agricultural Library, and Dumbarton Oaks. Numerous trips to the New YorkBotanical Garden and the Harvard University Botany libraries in Cambridge also were required, as was a trip to London to consult rarer items in the libraries of the RoyalBotanic Gardens, Kew and the NaturalHistoryMuseum in London.
A manuscript for the supplement treating authors F-Frer was submitted to the editor in December 2007, first and second proof were corrected and returned in April 2008, and the volume was published in late July 2008. Manuscript for the final supplement treating authors Fres-G was submitted in January 2008, the first proof was corrected and returned in September 2008, and second and third proofs were checked in October 2008. We have every expectation that the final volume of this monumental work will be published before the end of the calendar year.
Comments