new book on taxonomy

[Bill Shear]

A couple of days ago while visiting Judy Winston's lab at VMNH, I was
astonished by her generosity in presenting me with a copy of her
just-published book:

Winston, Judith E.  1999.  DESCRIBING SPECIES.  518 pp.  Columbia
University Press,New York.  ISBN 0-231-06824-7.

Having gotten well into the book, I can say that this is a volume that
belongs on shelf of every taxonomist, especially those involved in work on
new species.  It is a real how-to-do-it manual, filled with interesting
examples from a very wide variety of taxa--plants as well as animals.
Somehow Judy has managed to write what could have been a deadly dull
treatise in a fascinating way; it's a book you can actually read with
pleasure.

The bibliography includes internet sources and refers often to TAXACOM.

I wish this book would have been around when I was working on my
systematics course.  It will be a great resource the next time around,
especially since two of the student projects I assign involve describing
species!

Thanks, Judy, for writing a great book.

Also, I see by ad copy that Randy Schuh has a general systematics textbook
due out soon.  And the new versions of MacClade and PAUP are just around
the corner (beta test version of PAUP already available).  Things are
looking up.

Bill Shear
Department of Biology
Hampden-Sydney College
Hampden-Sydney VA 23943
(804)223-6172
FAX (804)223-6374
email<bills at hsc.edu>