Pesky Plants, Some Rhododendron Sites, Biodynamic Farming and Y2K

Alien invasive plants and their threat to native plants is treated in depth at Weeds Gone Wild <www.nps.gov/plants/alien>, which provides extensive links to fact sheets, lists of invasive plants, and other resources. Genetically modified plants and their possible effects on the food chain are discussed in terms of Monsanto's Roundup resistant seed in Scientific American Explore! Poison Plants <www.sciam.com/explorations/1999/070599plants/index.html> which also provides a list of pro and con links on the subject. Environmental concerns are also addressed online in the Electronic Green Journal <egj.lib.uidaho.edu/>, a free peer reviewed journal of articles and book reviews. Flora Shrode's "Environmental Resources on the World Wide Web" column in it is a gold mine of environmental web sites well worth exploring in the archived back issues.

The U. S. Department of Health and Human Services has put up a site called Healthfinder <www.healthfinder.com/default.htm>, which includes numerous areas, associated with medical botany. Among the more useful links found there are The Medicinal Plants of Native America Database <probe.nal.usda.gov.8300/cgi-bin/browse/mpnadb> based on the 1986 book of the same name by Stephen M. Beckstrom-Sternberg, Daniel E. Moerman, and James A. Duke, which is searchable common name, family, specific use, taxon, and tribe that used the plant. Also available is a link to the FDA Glossary of Pesticide Chemicals <vm.cfsan.fda.gov/~frf/pestglos.html> where, if you have Adobe Acrobat to read it, you can download the PDF file covering 991 chemicals used as pesticides with food and animal food crops including information on their molecular formulae and references to the Code of Federal Regulations Title 40 that lists tolerances on foods and feeds.

Biodynamic farming is a wedding of ecology and metaphysics which was given birth in a series of lectures delivered by Rudolf Steiner, an Austrian scientist and philosopher, in 1924 in response to concerns of soil depletion by chemical fertilizers. General information on the subject can be found at the Biodynamic Farming and Gardening Association < www.biodynamics.com/> while a more detailed treatment of the composting techniques will be found at Biodynamic Farming & Compost Preparation <www.attra.org/attra-pub/biodynamic.html>.

All of us involved with computers share a common concern with the Y2K problem. With this in mind, the United States President's Council on Year 2000 Conversion has put together the latest information at Year 2000 Conversion <y2k.gov> and Microsoft has put together another site containing information, tips, and downloads at Year 2000 Bug <computingcentral.msn.com/guide/year2000/>.

Turning from computer education to botanical and horticultural education, Study Web < www.studyweb.com> is a comprehensive guide to online resources aimed mainly at elementary and second school students and teachers which rates sites by grade level and includes material relevant to our area under the headings of Agriculture, Architecture (Landscaping), and Botany among others.

Turning to higher education, Michael J. Farabee has put together an interesting Online Biology Book <gened.emc.maricopa.edu/Bio/BIO181/BIOBK/BioBookTOC.html> used in conjunction with his classes at Estrella Mountain Community College in Arizona. The plant sections, dealing with topics such as photosynthesis are well done, albeit somewhat long to load because many of the images are linked from other sites.

While awaiting a new edition in 2000, The Compleat Cladist, the primer on phylogenetic procedures by E. O. Wiley, D. Siegel-Causey, D. R. Brooks and V. A. Funk is available as a downloadable PDF file of the first edition at <www.nhm.ukans.edu/cc.html>. And information on U.S.D.A. funded research projects including that on soil, crop and plant, forest, and rangeland is available in the AGROS Agricultural Research Data Directory <agros.usda.gov>.

With much ballyhoo, the venerable Encyclopaedia Britannica has just announced that all 32 volumes are now free on the internet at <www.britannica.com>. What they are telling long term subscribers to their pay service is somewhat different, suggesting that what is really available is their Britannica Internet Guide, which had previously been available only to subscribers, with some linkage to articles in the encyclopaedia database. This seems to be an evolving process - but one well worth a look.http://www.britannica.com

Exact descriptions and specifications for every unit of measurement is available at Units of Measurement <www.unc.edu/~rowlett/units/index.html>, an online dictionary compiled by Russ Rowlett.

Turning to history, we find a Catalog of the Scientific Community in the 16^th and 17^th Centuries compiled by the late Richard S. Westfall of the Department of History and Philosophy at Indiana University <es.rice.edu/ES/humsoc/Galileo/Catalog/catalog.html> which covers scientists born between 1471 and 1680. It is searchable as a database using 20 different fields and includes information on the scientist's sources of income, patrons, education, as well as their nationalities and accomplishments. It also notes the biographical sources used in compiling each entry. Probably the easiest access for those in our field is a subject search under botany or natural history that will turn up an alphabetical list of the scientists covered.

A Berkeley site dealing primarily with Evolution and Fossils also includes brief portraits of a number of the important historic figures in botany. Located at <www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/history/> it features material on the following figures, all accessible by inserting the indicated page after the last slash, Linnaeus (linnaeus.html), Lamarck (lamarck.html), van Leeuwenhoek (leeuwenhoek.html), Ray (ray.html), Hooke (hooke.html), and Erasmus Darwin (Edarwin.html).

Some texts, but more images, from early botanical works have been made available in the Kurt Stueber Library < www.mpiz-koeln.mpg.de/~stueber/stueber_library.html>.

The images available include those in an anonymous Japanese work on tree peonies from 1854, and the plates from Dietrich Brandis's Illustrations of the Forest Flora of North-West and Central India (1874), Carl Axel Magnus Lindman's Bilder ur Nordens Flora (1901-1905), and Wilhelm Thomé's Flora von Deutschland Österreich und der Schweiz (1885-1905).

More modern botanical artists are the focus of The Gordon-Craig Gallery <www.botanicart.com> that features biographies of varying lengths and styles of their current painters. Redouté and Ehret only rate images of their available paintings.

A different sort of botanical art can be found in the Arborsmith Studio <www.wmni.net/arborstu> where Richard Charles Reams displays his somewhat tortured looking sculptures and furniture made from living trees.

The American Society of Plant Physiologists site <www.aspp.org> includes free archives of all copies of Plant Cell and Plant Physiology that are over 18 months old.

A somewhat different sort of reference sent in by John Flanagan is the UK Online Phone Directory <www.bt.com/phonenetuk/>.

Turning to specific plants, Henning's Rhododendron and Azalea Pages <www.users.fast.net/~shenning/rhody.html> is an impressive source of information on the subject, made even more valuable by its collection of links which include the following: Mad Honey Disease <hbd.org/brewery/library/HonD.html> dealing with the poisonous effect of rhododendron honey; Rhododendron Diagnostics <cabarrus.ces.state.nc.us/staff/dgoforth/mdgworrho.html> compiled by the North Carolina State University Cooperative Extension to aid in the diagnosing problems in rhododendrons; and Herbert A. Spady's Rhododendron Species Dictionary <www.lib.virginia.edu/science/sciscan/rhododendrons/rhododict.html> listing clones, valid and invalid synonyms, subspecies, varieties, and forms.

The Rutgers Blueberry and Cranberry Extension Guide <aesop.rutgers.edu/~bluecran> provides extensive information and links on these two plants. The Coffee Science Information Center <www.cosic.org/> is a European site with extensive information on this favorite plant and beverage with even more information available at the International Coffee Organization <www.ico.org/> including its history and the health benefits of coffee.

Although Halloween is past, its history and the legend of Jack O'Lantern are among the subjects covered in Giant Pumpkins <www.thepumpkinmaster.com/index.html>. A more serious discussion of these large fruits is found on the CucurByte/web <www.mindspring.com/~neps/cucurbyte.htm> which includes a weight estimator for pumpkins based on their size and a genealogy of East Coast giant pumpkins.[This last site has been retired by its owner and replaced by a new site at aggc.1wh.com/aggc.asp which is still free for the moment, but requires registration, the use of a name and password, and InternetExplorere 4.0 or higher for the browser.]

Finally, having looked at lawn mower racing in the past, it is reassuring to know that there is also a British Lawnmower Museum <dspace.dial.pipex.com/town/square/gf86/> in Southport, Lancashire.

Stan Johnston, The Holden Arboretum

From here you can return to Stan Johnston's Internet Columns Page, the CBHL Publication Page, the CBHL Home Page, or learn about Rare Books and Artwork at The Holden Arboretum.