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Index of Mosses Database (W³MOST) The Index of Mosses database, also known as W³MOST, provides current information on bryophyte names from the TROPICOS MOST database compiled by the The Index of Mosses project. This database of moss names was prepared as part of the Index of Mosses project at the Missouri Botanical Garden. The Index of Mosses project produces guides to newly published nomenclature for mosses. As an aid for preparing the Index of Mosses, a database of all published moss names is being developed. The Index differs fundamentally from earlier indexes, for example Jaeger and Sauerbeck's Genera et Species Muscorum, the two editions of Paris's Index Bryologicus, and Wijk, Margadant, and Florschütz's Index Muscorum, by not prescribing taxonomic disposition of names. Early in the project it was decided to restrict coverage to nomenclature because of the lack of stability of taxonomic opinions over short periods of time. This database extraction unlike the Index of Mosses includes taxonomic opinions of numerous authors, as well as our interpretation of the Code of Botanical Nomenclature. When the Index of Mosses was begun in 1974, the goal was to produce camera-ready copy from electronically stored information, bypassing the time- and money-consuming, error-introducing but time-proven process of setting type from manuscript, correcting proofs, and finally producing the printed product. Data for the Indexes is derived from MOST, a much larger database of information about mosses, part of the TROPICOS botanical database at the Missouri Botanical Garden. MOST currently contains information on over 90,000 bryophyte names, a bibliography of 16,000 titles, and almost 37,000 specimen records. The TROPICOS system formatted the information presented here, producing the HTLM documents with all codes and links as appropriate for the available data. No doubt certain errors of commission and omission remain. We would appreciate having these pointed out to us, so that we can correct the data base and improve future presentations. An indepth explanation of the nomenclatural data fields was presented in Crosby, M.R., R.E. Magill & C.R. Bauer, 1992. Index of Mosses, 1963-1989. Monographs in Systematic Botany from the Missouri Botanical Garden 42: 1-646; see pages 1-11. The old, static HTML files and Excite search option have been removed. Overhead of maintaining this option, space required, and constant need to refresh the files made it difficult to support. The W³MOST will provide current and more detailed information from the Index of Mosses database. Downloads of names from the the Index of Mosses data are available under Bryophyte Names Authority List. Please send any comments to Bob Magill at Bob.Magill@mobot.org.