Main | Family List (MO) | Family List (INBio) | Cutting Edge Draft Treatments | Guidelines | Checklist | Citing | Editors The Cutting Edge Volume V, Number 3, July 1998 News and Notes | Recent Treatments | Leaps and Bounds | Germane Literature Carter, R. & S. D. Jones. 1998 ['1997']. Notes on the Cyperus retroflexus complex (Cyperaceae) with three nomenclatural proposals. Rhodora 99: 319--334. A key to the C. retroflexus complex includes C. hermaphroditus (Jacq.) Standl. and C. tenuis Sw., both of which occur in Costa Rica. Three new combinations are proposed, none of which concerns us. Downie, S. R., S. Ramanath, D. S. Katz-Downie & E. Llanas. 1998. Molecular systematics of Apiaceae subfamily Apioideae: phylogenetic analyses of nuclear ribosomal DNA internal transcribed spacer and plastid rpoC1 intron sequences. Amer. J. Bot. 85: 563--591. Apiaceae subfam. Hydrocotyloideae here emerges as polyphyletic, with some members (including Hydrocotyle and perhaps Centella) comprising a sister group to all examined Araliaceae. The last-mentioned family (with Hydrocotyle etc. included) is monophyletic, and the sister group to all other examined Apiaceae. This scenario undermines recent overtures to unite the two families on the premise that the herbaceous Apiaceae are nested within the tropical, woody Araliaceae. Back and forth we go! Dressler, R. L. 1998. A new white Sobralia from Costa Rica. Orchid Digest 62: 89--91. Sobralia kerryae Dressler (Orchidaceae), named for the author's talented wife, is based on a specimen collected at 1150 m elevation in the Cordillera de Tilarán near Monteverde. The sp. had been recognized as new from photographs of an earlier specimen, not collected, encountered at ca. 800--1000 m elevation in the Fila Costeña near Pejibaye, in the Valle de El General. The new sp. is compared with Sobralia macrophylla Rchb. f. Features a detailed line-drawing, as well as a color photo of a living plant. Luer, C. A. 1998. Systematics of the subgenus Crocodeilanthe of Pleurothallis (Orchidaceae). Pp. 1--82 in, C. A. Luer, Icones pleurothallidinarum XVI. Monogr. Syst. Bot. Missouri Bot. Gard. 65: 1---122. We count 64 spp. in this subgenus, ranging from Central America to coastal Venezuela and central Brazil. Most comprise comparatively large plants, with long racemes of many, small flowers that open simultaneously. None of the 18 new spp. here validated occurs in Costa Rica, from which just three spp. are recorded: the unique endemic Pleurothallis atwoodii Luer, known by a single collection from the Dota region; and the more widespread P. floribunda Poepp. & Endl. and P. pulchella (Kunth) Lindl. Includes a subgenus description, key to spp., sp. descriptions, lists of exsiccatae, index to scientific names, and line-drawings of all spp. (but no distribution maps). ----. 1998. Systematics of the subgenus Rhynchopera of Pleurothallis (Orchidaceae). Pp. 83--94 in, C. A. Luer, Icones pleurothallidinarum XVI. Monogr. Syst. Bot. Missouri Bot. Gard. 65: 1---122. This subgenus of eight spp. ranges from Costa Rica to Bolivia, Venezuela, and the Dominican Republic. Pleurothallis loranthophylla Rchb. f., the only sp. occurring in Costa Rica, ranges nearly as widely. In Costa Rica, it occurs at ca. 600--2000 m elevation. No new spp. are described here. This article has the same features as the preceding one. Pool, A. 1998. Notes on Central American Scutellaria (Lamiaceae). Novon 8: 62--66. Two new spp. are described, only one of which occurs in Costa Rica. Scutellaria tenuipetiolata A. Pool, a purplish-flowered member of sect. Uliginosae, is endemic, known only from the Atlantic slope of the Cordillera de Talamanca at ca. 50--200 m elevation. Features regional keys to and discussions of spp. in sects. Cardinales and Uliginosae, including the first Costa Rican and Central American report of Scutellaria hookeri Epling, otherwise recorded only from Colombia and Peru. Detailed, composite line-drawing of the new sp. Silba, J. 1998. A monograph of the genus Cupressus L. J. Int. Conifer Preserv. Soc. 5(2): 1--98. Cupressus (Cupressaceae) comprises 25 spp. of the northern hemisphere, here grouped in two subgenera with a total of seven sections (two newly described). The natural range of the genus in the New World extends from Oregon to (apparently) Honduras. Collections of the mainly Mexican Cupressus lindleyi Klotzsch are cited from Nicaragua and Panama, but these (presumably) derive from cultivated plants. The sp. most commonly cultivated in Costa Rica has generally been called C. lusitanica Mill., here described as native to India, where it is extinct in the wild. However, no Central American collections of that sp. are cited, and no light is shed on the identity of our material. Includes a key to spp., brief descriptions, limited citations of exsiccatae, and glued-on, black-and-white prints, mostly of herbarium specimens. This is a very funky, homemade production that was probably not distributed to more than a handful of major botanical libraries. Snow, N. 1998. Nomenclatural changes in Leptochloa P. Beauvois sensu lato (Poaceae, Chloridoideae). Novon 8: 77--80. The combination Leptochloa fusca (L.) Kunth subsp. uninervia (J. Presl) N. Snow is here validated for a widespread taxon (occurring in Costa Rica) known most recently as L. uninervia (J. Presl) Hitchc. & Chase. The name Leptochloa fusca is used in preference to the earlier but much less familiar L. malabarica (L.) Veldkamp, which has been proposed for rejection [see The Cutting Edge 5(2): 8, Apr. 1998]. Tryon, R. 1998 ['1997']. Systematic notes on Oleandra. Rhodora 99: 335--343. A synoptic "classification" of the American spp. of Oleandra (Polypodiopsida: Davalliaceae), without species descriptions. Just four spp., all represented in Costa Rica, are recognized for the New World: Oleandra articulata (Sw.) C. Presl, O. bradei H. Christ, O. pilosa Hook. (including O. decurrens Maxon), and O. lehmannii Maxon (including O. costaricensis Maxon). The names indicated parenthetically are those accepted in the recent (1995) Flora mesoamericana treatment (1: 289--290) by Mónica Palacios-Ríos. Tryon considers that O. bradei, the sole Costa Rican endemic, "...may well be a variant of O. articulata. There seems to be little reason for its recognition as a species." Features one composite photographic plate. The Old World species are discussed very briefly.