Flora of China Project to Translate, Revise, and Computerizethe Florae Reipublicae Popularis Sinicae

自世纪中期以来，美国第一个 哈佛大学的专业植物学家阿萨格雷指出， 植物学家们对这种相似性着迷于 生长在东部的植物的相关物种和属的数量 北美和东亚。 气候相似性可以 部分解释了这些植物的分布范围，如 园丁们可能会怀疑，谁种植的品种开发第一 在中国 更新世和更早的地质事件， 也帮助形成了这两个植物区系的相似之处 大洲 但事实上， 物种组成上的巨大差异， 东亚生物群的多样性，估计有3万种植物 在中国发生的种。 不幸的是， 在过去的两年里， 几代人，中国植物学家反过来也在 相对孤立。 《中国植物植物群》项目提出了一个 有机会扭转这种孤立主义的分离， 中国和美国的植物学家一起翻译，修改， 中国丰富的植物群的计算机分类学信息。 自1959年以来，中国学者一直在收集植物， 标本在中国各地，并准备描述植物区系 有关植物群的出版物。 已出版约50卷， 全部为中文;另外50-70卷将在 未来十年 本项目将促进 翻译成英文的出版卷，在概要 格式. 此外，美国植物学家将与他们的 中国同行对选定的分类修订， 结合美国机构保存的标本数据， 中国人在自己的研究中没有使用过; 收藏在哈佛大学和加州学院 科学是重要的资源。 最后，所有 植物区系数据将被纳入计算机数据库， 正在密苏里州植物园开发， 与现在用于北卡罗来纳州植物群的植物相一致 美国项目已经在那里建立。 这是第一个奖项，在历史上的一个困难时期， 美国--中国关系，建立在密切接触和研究的基础上 经过多年协商达成的协议， 中国的四个主要植物研究所以及三个 美国主要的植物学机构Peter Raven教授 和他的同事戴威廉博士担任校长 investigators. 许多同事也承诺， 支持这一雄心勃勃的重要事业， 承诺将大大扩展科学知识， 北方植物资源。

Since the mid-19th century, when America's first professional botanist, Asa Gray of Harvard University, pointed out the similarity, botanists have been fascinated with the large number of related species and genera of plants growing in eastern North America and in eastern Asia. Climatic similarity can explain in part many of these plant distributional ranges, as gardeners may suspect, who have grown varieties developed first in China. Geological events, from the Pleistocene and earlier, have also helped shape similarities in the floras of the two continents. But the similarities are in fact outweighed by substantial differences in species composition, and by the rich diversity of eastern Asian biota, with an estimated 30,000 plant species occurring in China. Unfortunately, accessibility of this rich plant biota has been severely limited for the last two generations, and Chinese botanists in turn have worked in relative isolation. The Flora of China project presents an opportunity to reverse that isolationist separation, and bring together Chinese and American botanists to translate, revise, and computerize taxonomic information about China's rich flora. Since 1959 Chinese scholars have been collecting plant specimens throughout China and preparing descriptive floristic publications on the flora. About 50 volumes have been published, all in Chinese; 50-70 additional volumes are to be completed in the next decade. The present project would facilitate the translation into English of the published volumes, in synoptic format. In addition, American botanists would work with their Chinese counterparts on selected taxonomic revisions, incorporating data from specimens held in U.S. institutions that have not been used by the Chinese in their own studies; the collections at Harvard University and at the California Academy of Sciences especially are important resources. Finally, all the floristic data will be incorporated into computer databanks now under development at the Missouri Botanical Garden, using formats compatible with those now being employed for the Flora of North America program already established there. This first award, made at a difficult time in the history of U.S.-Chinese relations, builds upon close contacts and research agreements established after years of consultation and involving the four principal botanical institutes in China as well as three major botanical institutions in the U.S., with Prof. Peter Raven and his colleague Dr. William Tai serving as principal investigators. Numerous colleagues have also pledged their support to this ambitious and important undertaking, which promises a significant expansion in scientific knowledge of northern hemisphere plant resources.