breviated, of the person who first described the plant. Often
there is also the name of the person who first placed the plant
in its present genus, or at its present taxonomic level. The first
plant in the present list, for example, the whisk-fern, was first
described by Linnaeus in 1753 as Lycopodium nudum and was
transferred to its correct placement in the genus Psilotum by
Palisot de Beauvois in 1805; the full name of the plant becomes
therefore Psilotum nudum (L.) Beauv.
 All scientific names used in this Checklist have been pub-
lished previously. The names are believed legitimate, in the
narrow sense of the International Code, although it has not been
possible to confirm this in all cases. Where the application of a
given name differs from that of recent authors, the writer is
reasonably confident that his usage is the correct one.
 The plants of this Checklist are grouped not only into genera
but into higher categories indicating their common relation-
ships. The most important of these is the rank of family, a
category containing one or more genera of presumed close
evolutionary origin. All family names (with the exceptions in
Part I of the Gramineae and Palmae) may be recognized by
the ending -aceae.
 Above the level of family are recognized, where appropriate,
 the ascending levels of subclass, class, subdivision, and division.
 These categories are in conformity with a widely used, although
 far from universally accepted, schema of classification pro-
 pounded by Tippo,2 as a synthesis of several earlier arrange-
 ments.

 Synonyms
 The works of John Kunkel Small have remained, since his
 death in 1938, the most important single source of information
 on the taxonomy of the plants of the Southeast. Neither this
 Checklist nor any other study of the flora of Florida can be
 complete without consideration of Small's numerous botanical
 papers and comprehensive books. In the present list, whenever
 the name used by Small in two of his more important works
 (Manual of the Southeastern Flora, 1933; Ferns of the South-
 eastern States, 1938) differs from the name here considered
 correct, Small's name is listed in Roman type below the accepted
 name.
 The works of J. K. Small are characterized not only by a

 2 Tippo, 0. 1942. A modern classification of the plant kingdom. Chron.
 Bot. 7: 203-206.