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PERTINENT LITERATURE

Instead of compiling the customary incomplete lists of literature which pertains to the approach in question, reference should be given to the very thorough literature review on the Yugoslavian flora which is listed on 23 pages in Ernest Mayer's "Seznam Prapotnic in Cvetnic Slovenskega Ozemlja," published by the Slovenska Akademija Znanosti in Umetnost in 1952, with nine additional pages of references added by E. Mayer in 1963 in his comprehensive review on "Die floristische und taxonomische Tätigkeit in Jugoslawien von 1945-1961," published in Mebba 18, 1963, pp. 347-365. All pertinent cytological references to the European flora are given on almost 200 pages in A. and D. Löve's: "Chromosome numbers of Central and Northwest European plant species," published in Opera Botanica Vol. 5, 1961, pp. 1-581, and the philosophical and evolutionary background of such studies is summarized by A. Löve in an article on "The biological species concept and its evolutionary structure," originally published in Taxon 13, 1964, pp. 33-45, and recently reprinted as the first article in "Contemporary Readings in Ecology," edited by A.S. Boughey in 1969.

OUTLINE OF THE WORK

It is proposed that, based on the considerations above, the alpine flora of Yugoslavia and that of the Julian Alps of Slovenia ought to be studied cytotoxonomically by concerted American and Yugoslavian efforts. Since most recent work on the flora has been carried out from the well-equipped Department of Botany of the University of Ljubljana, where good facilities for cultivation in a botanical garden and greenhouses are available and also some laboratory space, it is proposed that this Department be established as the main base of the investigations, later perhaps to be widened by subbases, at Departments of Botany at other Universities. Although there is some difficulty in planning other participation before the work has commenced, it is anticipated that students from other universities will join in the work in later years, so that the program may ultimately involve all such institutions in the country, while from the beginning professors from Belgrade and Skopje will act as consultants for the project.

In order to determine exactly the chromosome numbers of the various species, collections will be made in the field of fixed root-tips and flower buds from properly vouchered specimens. Various fixing media will be used, and determinations will be made with the microscope in the field as well as in the laboratories. Since fixtions made in the field in warm climates sometimes have a tendency not to give proper results, living material of every species that does not give results at once in the field will be transplanted into pots in Ljubljana for later re-fixation. In the case of annual plants, seeds will be collected for cultivation in the botanical garden at Ljubljana, and such seeds will also be collected from selected annual and perennial material for further biosystematic investigations in Boulder.

In addition to the cytological investigations, critical species will also be compared in great detail during the winter, by aid of ordinary