Plant names in homeopathy: an annotated checklist of currently accepted names in common use.

The imminent publication of a new checklist of all plant species used in homeopathic medicine is described and discussed. This brief article shows how the nomenclature of all names in the Complete Repertory have been revised and checked against the original publications. In addition, the names used in the French, German and American pharmacopoeias have also been examined. In total, some 801 species and approximately 1,700 names have been checked. In the checklist additional notes on common and vernacular names are provided, misidentified names have been corrected and names peculiar to homeopathy have been brought into line with the modern International Code of Botanical Nomenclature.

Beyond opportunism: Key principles for systematic reserve selection.

The intention and practice of conservation reserve selection are different. A major reason for systems of reserves is to sustain biological diversity. This involves protecting examples of as many natural features, e.g. species, communities or environments, as possible. In reality, however, new reserves have rarely been dedicated for their representation of features. Furthermore, the opportunism that has characterized the development of reserve systems can actually jeopardize the representation of all features in reserves through the inefficient allocation of limited resources. More systematic approaches are essential if reserves are to play their role in protecting biodiversity. Some basic principles for conservation planning are emerging from recent systematic procedures for reserve selection. These principles will help to link intention and practice.

Sequence of a small subunit rRNA gene of Schistosoma mansoni and its use in phylogenetic analysis.

The complete sequence of a small ribosomal RNA gene of Schistosoma mansoni contained within plasmids pSM389 and pSM889 is presented. It was found to be 1992 bp in length, larger than that of most eukaryotes. Extra nucleotides occur in regions known to be variable (V4 and V7). The predicted secondary structure of the nucleotides 660-853 revealed additional helices which have been designated E21-1A and E21-1B. The other region to differ from higher eukaryotes lies between nucleotides 1457 and 1569. Secondary structure prediction demonstrated that a single extended helix may be formed from this part of the schistosome small subunit rRNA sequence. Nucleotides that could be unambiguously aligned with those of 12 other eukaryotes were used to estimate phylogenetic relationships. The consensus tree obtained by Maximum Parsimony analysis showed the schistosome as a sister taxon to the flatworm Dugesia tigrina.

SYSTEMATICS AND BIOGEOGRAPHY OF THE AUSTRALIAN "GREEN ASH" EUCALYPTS (MONOCALYPTUS).

Abstract- A cladistic analysis of the "green ash" eucalypts, informal subgenus "Monocalyptus", is presented- As a first step, ordination methods of principal coordinates analysis and multidimensional scaling delineated some terminal taxa. The cladistic analysis, applying parsimony methods to the unweighted data set, yielded 25 equally parsimonious trees, each with a consistency index of 0.57. Farris' successive approximations approach to character weighting produced one tree with a consistency index of 0.74. An informal classification of the group, superseries Eucalyptus, is based on that cladogram. The biogeographic history of superseries Eucalyptus is interpreted from the cladogram as having been caused by lour vicariant events in southeastern Australia, in combination with a suite of ecological features that overlie the biogeographic area-pattern.