New taxa, new records and name changes for southern African plants

Alterations for the year 1986 to the inventory maintained in PRECIS are reported for bryophytes, pteridophytes and monocotyledons, and for a few dicotyledons. For the cryptogams and monocots there are 77 newly described species or infraspecific taxa, 27 names brought back into use, and nine species newly reported for southern Africa, resulting in 113 additions to the total list of species. Five species were removed because they were mistakenly recorded from the area. Seventy-five names have gone into synonymy, there are 52 new combinations, and there are 35 orthographic corrections, resulting in 237 alterations to the list of species. The total of 355 additions, deletions and alterations represents about 5% of the total species and infraspecific taxa for the cryptogams and monocots.


INTRO DUCTIO N
This is the third in this series that reports annual alterations to the com plete inventory of southern African plants m aintained in the com puter system, PREC IS. The previous annual lists of changes were published in Bothalia 15: 757-759 (1985) and 16: 109-118 (1986) (Staff of the National Herbarium 1985, 1986. The form at continues to be that of the List o f species o f southern African plants, Edn 2, Part 1 (Gibbs Russell et al. 1985). The com plete and upto-date listing of nam es, literature and useful syno nyms for all the 24 000 southern African plants is continuously m aintained as part of PRECIS. List ings of the most recent treatm ent for any family or genus can be supplied by the Botanical Research Institute.
The m ajority of changes reported here apply only to cryptogams and m onocots because changes for the dicotyledons to 30 June 1986 are included in the List o f species o f southern African plants, Edn 2, Part 2 (Gibbs Russell et al. 1987). However, a few changes for dicots published in the last half of 1986 are listed here.
Families and genera follow the order and num ber ing of the E nglerian classification system, as given by Dyer (1975Dyer ( , 1976, and species are in alphabetical order. A nam e in current use appears in capital let ters with its PR E C IS num ber. Synonyms appear in lower case letters, and each synonym is entered twice, once indented below the nam e for which it is a * Botanical Research Institute, Private Bag X101, Pretoria 0001. synonym, and once in its alphabetical place in the genus. New collection records are indicated by quot ing a specimen and its locality. N aturalized taxa are shown by an asterisk following the name. The length of the list is again surprising to its com pilers. During 1986 there were additions, deletions and alterations in about 5% of the names for crypto gams and m onocots, com pared to about 6% for 1985. Additions include 77 newly described species or infraspecific taxa, 27 names brought back into use that were not in previous lists, and nine species newly reported for southern Africa (all grasses, se ven of them naturalized), giving a total of 113 addi tions to the list. Deletions include five pteridophyte species that were rem oved from the list because they had been mistakenly recorded from southern Africa. A lterations include 75 names that have been re duced to synonymy, 52 new com binatons, and 35 orthographic corrections, giving a total of 237 altera tions to the list.
The effort necessary to evaluate and compile the changes, to im plem ent them curatorially in herbaria, and to use them in conjunction with existing litera ture has been discussed previously (Staff of the N a tional H erbarium 1986). At that time it was thought that the 1985 figure of 6% changes to the overall list for cryptogam s and monocots was unusually high because of many alterations in Restionaceae (Linder 1985). T herefore, changes am ounting to 5% of the list in a year, when there have been no revisions of large groups, is unexpected.
Each contributor is acknowledged at the nam e of the group or family for which he is responsible.  2. VELDKAMP. 1 9 8 6 . BLUMEA 31: 2 8 1 .