Bibliography of Pacific and Malaysian plant maps of Phanerogams

With the start of the publication of the Pacific Plant Areas the need was felt for a bibliography of maps which have been published in the past, even though it appeared that the majority of these maps were not up to date. The quality of the published maps varies enormously from the very clear and elaborated ones in the Pflanzenareale to the curiously aborted one of Parasponia, and to the completely hopeless tangle of lines and dots found on some other ones. Various methods have been employed, from very rough to very detailed, from mere outlines to detailed dotted localities, from a map for each taxon to several taxa on one map. Some authors have delineated tracks instead of areas, as Danser has done in his paper on Polygonaceae, without stating the fact, however. Sometimes the maps were reduced to a scale which is so small that it gave a hopeless result, especially if printed on non-glossy paper. In several cases reading the map is hardly possible without a magnifying glass, and even if the maps are clear enough it is mostly advisable to check the data with the text. Also the facts on which these maps were based were various; some resulted from monographical work, others were obviously solely based on literature; many were copied time and again, especially the show-examples.