Conservation of Threatened Plants

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xvi

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2. Conservation-Orientated Collections

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 1-1

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   2. Introduction

      • J. Heslop-Harrison

      Pages 3-7

   3. The Global Problems of Conservation and the Potential Role of Living Collections

      • G. Budowski

      Pages 9-13

3. Existing Collections

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 17-17

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   2. Past: Aims and Objectives

      • B. F. Bruinsma

      Pages 19-26

   3. Present: The Resource Potential of Existing Living Plant Collections

      • John B. Simmons

      Pages 27-38

   4. Future: Integrated International Policies

      • R. L. Shaw

      Pages 39-47

4. Techniques of Cultivation

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 53-53

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   2. Mesembryanthemums and the Problems of Their Cultivation

      • Hans-Helmut Poppendieck

      Pages 55-60

   3. The Arctic Glasshouse

      • T. Böcher

      Pages 61-66

   4. Technical Description of the Arctic Glasshouse (Greenland House) in the Botanical Garden in Copenhagen

      • Olaf Olsen

      Pages 67-72

   5. The Propagation of Hawaiian Endangered Species

      • Keith R. Woolliams

      Pages 73-83

5. Documentation

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 87-87

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   2. The Records System of Uppsala Botanic Garden

      • Örjan Nilsson

      Pages 89-93

   3. The Use of Records Systems in the Planning of Botanic Garden Collections

      • J. Cullen

      Pages 95-103

   4. Preliminary List of Botanic Garden Catalogues, Inventories, Etc.

      • J. Cullen

      Pages 105-111

   5. The Future and Electronic Data Processing

      • F. H. Perring

      Pages 113-117

   6. Index Systems for Special Collections as Illustrated by the Orchidaceae

      • Matthias Hofmann

      Pages 119-122

6. Conservation of Horticultural Plants

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 129-129

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During the last hlO hundred years man has changed from living in equilibrium with the natural world which sustained him, to a new position in which he is now its undisputed ruler - and very often out of equilibrium - able in a matter of hours to reduce miles of forest to devastated, potential desert. This destructive and wasteful ability has increas~d dramatically over recent years. At the same time however the need for conservation, particularly of plants as a resource for the future, has also become apparent, along with the realisation that advanced technologies can produce more from existing agricultural and forest regions. This may to some extent relieve the heavy pressure on the vulnerable areas where short term over-exploitation leads to permanent destruction of whole ecosystems, and the attendant loss, for ever, of many of the animals and plants which originally lived there. There still remains today a vast number of plant species whose potential is unknown. Maybe they will never have more than aesthetic value to mankind. But who knows where, for example, the next anti­ cancer agent may be found. And anyway future generations may not be ready to accept such anthropocentric values, and the options should be kept open for the philosophical concept that all life on earth has a right to exist and that man has none to exterminate.

• agriculture
• desert
• earth
• ecosystem
• forest
• plant
• plants

• Living Collections Division, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Richmond, Surrey, England

  J. B. Simmons

• Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Richmond, Surrey, England

  R. I. Beyer, V. T. H. Parry

• Cytology, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Richmond, Surrey, England

  P. E. Brandham

• Conservation Unit, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Richmond, Surrey, England

  G. Ll. Lucas

Policies and ethics