No abstract

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.. International Association for Plant Taxonomy (IAPT) is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Taxon. SummaryAims and scope of the Flora Reipublicae Popularis Bulgaricae, of which three volumes have so far appeared (1963, 1964, 1965), are discussed with reference to herbarium collections, previous literature and general organizational questions. The fourth (Cactaceae-Crassulaceae) and fifth (Rosaceae-Leguminosae) volumes are in preparation. "Flora Reipublicae Popularis Bulgaricae" is a regional Flora of the higher plants of an area of some 110,990 sq. km. It covers the eastern part of the Balkan peninsula (22% of the total area of the peninsula) and is therefore closely linked with taxonomic studies on the Floras of Turkey, Jugoslavia and Romania, as well as local Floras in various parts of the Soviet Union, Iran, Italy and Central Europe. The project is also closely connected with the preparation of "Flora Europaea" and the mapping of the european flora. It is inlended to be a research Flora which will form a basis for further taxonomic studies on the Bulgarian flora. Since the "Flora Bulgarica" of J. Velenovsky is somewhat out of date and incomplete, and since the "Flora of Bulgaria" of N. Stojanov and B. Stefanov (even in its 4th edition, revised by B. Kitanov) is more of a "determinator" with generalised chorological data, the "Flora R P B" has to take into critical account all the available data (both from the literature and from original taxonomic studies) and must produce as complete a Flora as is possible at the present time. Projects have also been worked out for other plant groups -Bryophyta, Fungi and Algaeand Determinators, Conspectuses and Floras of these will be published separately from the "Flora R P B".The main sources of the present study are the taxonomic and floristic works on the flora of the Balkan peninsula and Bulgaria

The known alkaloids (-)-stylopine, (-)-canadine, (+/-)-sinactine, (+)-nantenine, (+)-bulbocapnine, protopine, (-)-isocorydine, (-)-domesticine, alpha-allocryptopine and berberine were found in a mixture of alkaloids from Corydalis slivenensis (Papaveraceae), growing in Bulgaria. Dehydronantenine, corydine, predicentrine and isoboldine were detected by means of a thin-layer chromatography. Two other alkaloids - (+)-tetrahydrocorysamine and (-)-cavidine, were identified on the basis of their spectral data.

Twenty-eight native Bulgarian populations of Thalictrum minus complex (Ranunculaceae) show a clear correlation between the cytotype and the type of dimer isoquinoline alkaloids (2n=42 with BBI and 2n=70 with ABI alkaloids). A similar correlation is evident also in the genus Thalictrum L. There are probably different evolutionary lines: in one the biogenesis reaches to the BBI types and in the other to the ABI types.

A new 4,5-dioxoaporphine, named corydione, was isolated from the whole herb of Corydalis bulbosa (L.) Dc (Papaveraceae), together with dehydronantenine, (-)-stylopine, (+)-bicuculline, (-)-adlumidine, (+)-nantenine, (+)-bulbocapnine, protopine (-)-domesticine, (+)-corydine, predicentrine, oxonantenine, (+)-isoboldine and nandazurine. Glaucine and thaliporphine were detected by means of thin-layer chromatography. In addition, one minor alkaloid Cb-4, uncompletely identified, was described. The spectral data of corydione, predicentrine and nandazurine are given.