NEWS NOTES 
Island Bibliographies — A Review 
Island Bibliographies, compiled by Marie- 
Helene Sachet and Dr. F. Raymond Fosberg and 
published by the Pacific Science Board, National 
Academy of Sciences, National Research Council 
(Publication 335, 577 pages, 1955 [$6.00]), 
is an outstanding guide to the written knowl- 
edge of botany in the Pacific and of the land 
ecology of atolls throughout the world. 
This thick book, produced by offset from 
typewritten pages, presents the results of three 
separate bibliographic projects which these 
careful and energetic authors have carried out 
for the Pacific Science Board. Each is complete 
in itself. 
Each bibliography lists publications by 
authors in alphabetical sequence and chronolog- 
ically under each author. For each there is a 
concise statement as to its major contents, and 
for rare publications, a note as to the library 
and call number where consulted. Each bibli- 
graphy is followed by a subject index or guide, 
listing the authors and dates of pertinent articles 
under subject headings. 
The first of the three is an "Annotated biblio- 
graphy of Micronesian botany,” covering the 
Mariana, Caroline, Marshall and Gilbert archi- 
pelagoes, together with a few isolated islands, 
such as Marcus, Wake, Mapia, Nauru and Ocean, 
lying adjacent to them. 
The second part, "Bibliography of the land 
ecology and environment of coral atolls,” re- 
sulted from two symposia on atolls, held in 
Washington, D.C. and Honolulu in 1951, at 
which the importance of a survey of what had 
been written about atolls was stressed. The list 
of authors and titles covers 183 pages, without 
its supplement, and the index is 75 pages. The 
main subject headings of this part include: 
Geography, Geology, Climate, Effects of hur- 
ricanes and typhoons, Water supply, Soils and 
substratum, Vegetation, Flora, Phytogeography, 
Fauna, Zoogeography, Economic plants and 
animals, Ecology, Atolls in general, and group- 
ings of the more than 400 atolls by areas — 
Pacific, East Indies and China Sea, Indian Ocean, 
and Caribbean, with extensive subdivision; Ex- 
peditions and voyages, Bibliography, Photog- 
raphs and other illustrations, Maps and charts. 
The third part is a "Selected bibliography of 
vegetation of the tropical Pacific islands.” The 
emphasis is on vegetation, but the listings 
should be of interest to students of geography, 
geology, ecology, zoology, climatology, soil sci- 
ence, forestry, agriculture, economics, military 
science, and engineering. All islands and island 
groups in the tropical and subtropical Pacific 
are covered, even those already included in the 
first of the three bibliographies. The authors 
state that, "since the amount of information 
available on different islands and island groups 
varies exceedingly, the treatment has corres- 
pondingly varied. For islands whose vegetation 
is relatively well-known, fewer obscure and un- 
important articles are included, especially where 
there have been adequate summaries. . . . On the 
other hand, so little is available on some islands 
that tiny scraps of information and some of 
dubious value are listed.” No attempt has been 
made to list floras and check-lists, unless these 
contain descriptive information on vegetation. 
Floras are listed by Black and Atwood (U.S. 
Department of Agriculture Miscellaneous Pub- 
lication 401, 1942 ) and by Merrill in his various 
Pacific botanical bibliographies. The index is 
entirely geographical, by island groups and many 
individual islands. 
For the sake of conserving space, titles of 
series publications have been abbreviated. The 
full title of each serial is listed, together with 
the place of publication and the name of the 
library where files are known to exist. 
There is an addendum for each of the three 
bibliographies and the list of serials. The pub- 
lication includes all items located up to No- 
vember 1, 1954. 
Knowledge of what has been recorded is 
essential to careful research. This volume is 
commended to all persons interested in atolls 
and in the vegetation of tropical Pacific islands. 
E. H. Bryan, Jr. 
Volume 2 of Insects of Micronesia, the Bibli- 
ography has been issued. This very complete 
bibliography, with its accompanying index by 
families and higher categories, will be useful to 
anyone interested in the terrestrial arthropods 
of any portion of the Pacific area. The various 
numbers of the taxonomic volumes have begun 
to appear and are available by purchase from 
the Bernice P. Bishop Museum, Honolulu. The 
price of the Bibliography is $2.00, the price of 
the parts will vary. 
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