The field of plant taxonomy has transformed rapidly over the past fifteen years, especially with regard to improvements in cladistic analysis and the use of new molecular data. The second edition of this popular resource reflects these far-reaching and dramatic developments with more than 3,000 new references and many new figures. Synthesizing current research and trends, Plant Taxonomy now provides the most up-to-date overview in relation to monographic, biodiversity, and evolutionary studies, and continues to be an essential resource for students and scholars. This text is divided into two parts: Part 1 explains the principles of taxonomy, including the importance of systematics, characters, concepts of categories, and different approaches to biological classification. Part 2 outlines the different types of data used in plant taxonomic studies with suggestions on their efficacy and modes of presentation and evaluation. This section also lists the equipment and financial resources required for gathering each type of data. References throughout the book illuminate the historical development of taxonomic terminology and philosophy while citations offer further study. Plant Taxonomy is also a personal story of what it means to be a practicing taxonomist and to view these activities within a meaningful conceptual framework. Tod F. Stuessy recalls the progression of his own work and shares his belief that the most creative taxonomy is done by those who have a strong conceptual grasp of their own research.

An illuminating look at the concept of the generic and its role in making meaning in the world. From off-brand products to elevator music, the “generic” is discarded as the copy, the knockoff, and the old. In The Copy Generic, anthropologist Scott MacLochlainn insists that more than the waste from the culture machine, the generic is a universal social tool, allowing us to move through the world with necessary blueprints, templates, and frames of reference. It is the baseline and background, a category that orders and values different types of specificity yet remains inherently nonspecific in itself. Across arenas as diverse as city planning, social media, ethnonationalism, and religion, the generic points to spaces in which knowledge is both overproduced and desperately lacking. Moving through ethnographic and historical settings in the Philippines, Europe, and the United States, MacLochlainn reveals how the concept of the generic is crucial to understanding how things repeat, circulate, and are classified in the world.

In our view, the First International Penicillium and Aspergillus Workshop held in Baarn and Amsterdam in May, 1985, was a great success. The assembly in one place of so many specialists in these two genera produced both interesting viewpoints and lively discussions. But more particularly, a remarkable cohesion of ideas emerged, borne primarily of the realisation that taxonomy has passed from the hands of the solitary morphologist. The future of taxonomy lay in collaborative and multidisciplinary studies embracing morphology, physiology and newer methodologies. Penicillium and Aspergillus Workshop was borne logically The Second International from the first, and was held in Baarn on May 8-12, 1989. It was attended by 38 scientists from 16 countries. At this Workshop we have attempted to move further into new methods, especially by bringing together molecular biologists, medical and food mycologists and biochemists as well as more traditional taxonomists. We feel that the meeting contributed greatly to dialogue between taxonomists, and also fundamental and applied mycologists. At the meeting, we became aware that the approach to taxonomy of these genera is now becoming more pragmatic, with an increasing emphasis on consensus, and on stability of names. This is a noteworthy development, which we, as editors, welcome. So many species in Penicillium and Aspergillus are economically important in biotechnology, foods and medicine, and practical, stable taxonomy is of vital importance. These Proceedings comprise 40 papers divided into 9 chapters.