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Dedication

These Web pages are dedicated to two colleagues who had a profound influence on my career, and especially my work on New Caledonia:

Peter Raven, who originally suggested I work on New Caledonia for my doctoral studies on the family Araliaceae, and who more than a decade ago encouraged me to prepare a paper summarizing our current knowledge of the territory’s flora and vegetation.

Gordon McPherson, who introduced me to New Caledonia’s remarkable flora, and gave me the opportunity to accompany him on many excursions during my first visit to the island.

Acknowledgments

Work on New Caledonia was funded in part by a Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant from the U. S. National Science Foundation (BSR 83-14691), the Division of Biology and Biomedical Sciences of Washington University, St. Louis, and the Missouri Botanical Garden. Additional support provided by the W. Alton Jones Foundation, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, and the Liz Claiborne and Art Ortenberg Foundation is gratefully acknowledged. Courtesies in New Caledonia were generously extended by the ORSTOM Center, Nouméa, and by the former Service des Forêts et du Patrimoine Naturel. I thank Ching-I Peng for inviting me to participate in the symposium, Ph. Morat, C. Taylor, and two anonymous reviewers for critical comments on an earlier version of the manuscript, and P. Hoch, D. Neill, P. Jørgensen, and J.-M. Veillon for valuable assistance.