Interactive flora of the British Isles: a digital encyclopedia.
Stace C, van der Meijden R, Kort I. 2004.
University of Amsterdam: ETI(Expert Center for TaxonomicIdentification). £37.50 (DVD-ROM).
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A small booklet is provided, which I found invaluable. In addition to helping you install the program, it describes all the functions and gives a short account of ETI (Expert Center for Taxonomic Identification, University of Amsterdam), which is ‘dedicated to the production of scientific and educational computer software for the preservation of knowledge concerning the world's plants and animals’. Once installed it doesn't take too long to navigate your way around. I use the word ‘navigate’ advisedly, because the opening screen is called ‘Navigator’. This has ten icons, each one taking you to a separate section: Introduction, Glossary, Literature, Index, Species, Higher Taxa, Photographers, Text Key, MapIt, and IdentifyIt. Throughout the DVD words in blue are linked directly to the Glossary, very useful for some of the more esoteric terms loved by botanists!
The Introduction explains the taxonomic scope of the DVD, with paragraphs on the taxa included, apomictic microspecies, alien taxa and the rationale of which ones have and have not been included, and how hybrids are dealt with.
The Glossary can be accessed either from the icon, or by clicking on words in blue type. The definitions are succinct and informative. If you visit the glossary using the icon click on the first letter of the word you want defined and keep clicking ‘next’ until you get there. Finding ‘Literature’ is much the same. There are not many literature references, and I think that both the glossary and literature could have been included as normal pages that can be scrolled through. All that clicking could bring on RSI (repetitive strain injury) faster than is really necessary!
The Index is very long, listing all the species, higher taxa and subspecific taxa, common names and hybrids. Clicking on a name takes you to the relevant page.
I found the ‘Species’ window one of the most interesting parts of the DVD. Hours can be spent reading about each species, and particularly browsing through the photographs. This is where the DVD really scores over the two books. Nothing beats a picture, and most species have two or more. Sometimes I would have liked to see more, or to be able to home into some detail that isn't shown well. When you first go into ‘Species’ it starts with Huperzia selago. There is a description of the species, genus, family, synonyms, classification (e.g. Kingdom Plantae, Phylum Lycopodophyta, Class Lycopodiopsida, Family Lycopodiaceae), Literature (in many cases none), and Multimedia. To most people that means photographs or drawings.
The ‘Photographers’ window gives the name, address and indicates which pictures were taken by any given photographer. In each species account, the pictures are also individually acknowledged. This is invaluable if you want to ask the photographer for a poster-sized print of your favourite picture.
The ‘Text Key’ is fairly easy to use. I compared some of it with Stace's first edition of the flora (1992 reprint). It begins with a dichotomy for pteridophytes versus seed plants (conifers or flowering plants), then conifer versus angiosperm and so on. I didn't spend too long using the key, but while browsing did get to Phoenix, which I was surprised to find can germinate and survive for a short while in Britain until frosts kill it off. There are no doubt many other surprises to be keyed out or found whilst browsing species accounts, and I expect that some people's favourite aliens will have been omitted.
‘IdentifyIt’ is the kind of multiple entry key that I prefer to dichotomous keys. Its major advantage is that you can choose characters in any order rather than be led by the idiosyncracies of the author of a dichotomous key. Unfortunately, your only option here is to use this window to identify species of Cotoneaster, Limonium binervosum agg., Sorbus aria agg., Sorbus intermedia agg., and Sorbus latifolia agg. Other genera that could benefit from this approach are Rubus, Hieracium and Taraxacum. The Introduction explains why they are not here. It takes a while to work out how to use ‘IdentifyIt’. You need to click on ‘open’ to get the five choices, and once chosen, you click on ‘define’ and select a character. Then, as you select characters, the percentage match with the characters chosen is given, so if you've chosen two characters, you'll have a 100 %, 50 % or 0 % match and so on.
‘MapIt’ is no doubt more versatile than I was in using it. It contains geographical data for 3229 species. It is slightly awkward to find the one you want, since pages 1–1513 cover Abies alba to Hypericum tetrapterum, pages 1514–3047 go from Hypericum undulatum to Trifolium pratense, and 3048–3229 from Trifolium repens to Zostera moltei. Scrolling down or up often means you whizz past the species you want. It is quicker to look up a species from the A–Z species index, go to ‘window’ and get the map directly that way. You can compare the distribution maps of two species and ask for a list of the taxa in a given grid square. Whereas the original atlas maps species in 10 km squares, the squares show here are much bigger (40 x 40, i.e. 160 km2). The CD-ROM provided with the atlas uses 10 km squares and therefore provides more detail than on this DVD.
I am very impressed with the immense amount of information this DVD contains. It combines two of the most informative books on British botany, and adds the extra dimension of photographs of most of the taxa covered. Neither of the two books are portable, even the flora is too large to carry comfortably in the field. The day will no doubt come when portable computers are small and robust enough to be taken on to a rainy hillside and used in the field, but we're not there yet. In the meantime, this is a very valuable addition to the electronic library of botanists with an interest in the British flora, and is cheap enough to be affordable to most students and naturalists.
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