BEFORE THE FLORAS - MONOGRAPHS

The proposal is made that writing of national or regional floras is pr emature, and that systematic resources should be directed toward the p reparation of monographs with cladistic analyses. This proposal result s from one major consideration: that the preparation of floras does no t require rigorous analysis of species definition and delimitation, an d therefore the basic data (i.e. the species circumscriptions) are mor e unreliable than that in monographs. Furthermore, contrary to some pu blished arguments, the data in floras are not presented and summarised in a format compatible with other areas of comparative and applied bi ology, whereas it is otherwise in a monograph with cladistic analysis. This proposition is based on the author's experience in preparing bot h monographs and floristic treatments.