Plant Collectors in Brazil

Abbreviations of Collectors' Names

A standard proposed to exchange herbarium specimen information is Herbarium Information Standards and Protocols for Interchange of Data (HISPID; Conn, 1996), developed by a committee of Australian herbaria and adopted by TDWG (International Working Group on Taxonomic Databases for Plant Sciences; June/2003). HISPID recommends that collectors name be registered in the following manner: primary collector's family name (surname) followed by comma and space (", ") then initials (all in uppercase and each separated by fullstops. All initials and first letter of the collector's family name in uppercase. For example, Kinoshita, L.S.

When one works with names of different origins, there are many doubts as to how one should address double surnames, the use of prepositions, prefixes and postpositive. The way names are formed vary according to different nationalities and not knowing these customs makes abbreviation more difficult. When these problems were detected we analyzed the procedures adopted by Brummitt & Powell (1992) to abbreviate names of plant authors and the procedures suggested by HISPID's Collection Group (Conn, 1996). Adding some observations on Brazilian names to these references we list some suggested procedures.

Double Surnames

In double surnames of Spanish origin, the first name is usually the most important (the father's surname comes before the mother's). For this reason abbreviations must have both surnames or the last is not cited (ex. González-Medrano, F. or González, F. and not Medrano, F.G.). Brummitt & Powell (1992) did not accept abbreviating the surname as in González M., F., which is very commonly found. We suggest the use of both surnames.

In double names of Portuguese origin, the last name is considered the most important, although both may be used. Both names must be used when joined with a hyphen (p.ex. Marcondes-Ferreira) or when double names are composed by an adjective and a substantive (p.ex. Castelo Branco) and also when one of the surnames is a postpositive adjective that indicates kinship such as Filho, Neto, Sobrinho and Júnior (ex. Leitão Filho, H.F.). Maintaining both surnames is also indicated in cases where the surname is very common (e.g. Silva, Alves, Pereira, Souza, etc.), to help distinguish identical abbreviations.

Prepositions and prefixes

Prepositions and prefixes can generate different abbreviations for the same collector. It is suggested by HISPID (Conn. 1996) that titles be omitted and, when the surname has a preposition and a substantive, the preposition must be in lowercase and the substantive's first letter in uppercase. Entries should be done by the surname and not preposition or prefix (Aart, J. H. van and not van Aart, J. H.), unless when these become part of the family name for having suffered influence from another language (ex. De Nardi, Vanderhyde) or for being a patronymic prefix such as O', M', Mac' and Mc' (ex. MacDonald, O., O'Conner, S.; Conn, 1996).

References

Brummitt, R. K. & Powell, C. E (eds.). 1992. Authors of Plant Names. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Kew.

Conn, B. J. (ed.) 1996. HISPID3, Herbarium Information Standards and Protocols for Interchange of Data. Version 3. Sydney: Royal Botanic Gardens. (07/2003)

Data was obtained from herbaria at Unicamp (UEC), New York Botanical Garden (NY), Agronomic Institute of Campinas (IAC) and from the Botanical Institute of São Paulo (SP). The variations of the abbreviations were maintained as were the dates of the collections related to the abbreviation in order to facilitate the identification of homonyms. Some information related to these abbreviations was added such as complete name, area where the person worked or works, period when this person collected for a specific herbarium, date of birth and death. Information as to the origin of the collector was also added, such as institution where the person works or worked and other observations. Sources of information used included:

• Index Herbariorum (07/2003)
• IPNI and taxonomists from UFRGS (02/2003)
• researchers from CNPq (02/2003)
• webpages of universities and research institutions, search engines such as Google (02/2003)
• contributions from a number of researchers

List of plant collectors who have worked in Brazil, with suggested abbreviations and biographical information.