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Acknowledgments

 

My efforts to document the plant life of Kaxil Kiuic have been aided by the good will and hard work of numerous individuals. First and foremost, I am pleased to thank my good friend James Callaghan of Merida, director of Kaxil Kiuic, the Helen Moyers Biocultural Reserve. It is safe to say that my compilation of the Kaxil Kiuic plant inventory would not now exist without the myriad forms of logistical support provided by James on each of my many trips to the peninsula. I hope the finished product meets his expectations. And I hope that he understands what a privelege it has been for me to work at Kaxil Kiuic.

Many individuals assisted me in the identification of plant specimens, both in the field and in the herbarium. Particularly noteworthy are J. Salvadore Flores, Juan J. Ortiz-Diaz, and Juan Tun (all of UADY), and German Carnevali and Jose Louis Tapia-Munoz (both of CICY), and Alan B. Curtis of Eugene, Oregon. Further, many individuals at UADY provided invaluable assistance in drying my herbarium specimens, providing temporary storage and managing the transfer of duplicates to CICY and URV; in addition to those already mentioned, Fabiola Contrerras-Cordero has been especially helpful and efficient in this regard. During multiple trips, field assistance was provided by Mario Magana and Pedro Gongora, both employees of INAH and residents of Oxkutzcab. Carlos Santos and his nephew Ishmael often accompanied me into the forest. Field assistance was also provided by several students on individual trips, notably Tihomir Kostadinov (at the time a student at University of Richmond), Chrissy McKenney (a graduate of Millsaps College), and Jesus Hinojosa (a graduate of UADY). In addition, each the student enrolled in the "Living in Yucatan" course taught in the years 2000 and 2001 participated in documenting the plant diversity of the reserve.

The "Living in Yucatan" course deserves special mention. This class, organized through Millsaps College, was seminal in getting me to Yucatan and Kiuic for the first time in June 2000; ultimately I served as a co-instructor in the course for 5 years and each trip afforded me opportunities to study the plant life of the reserve. So, thanks are also due those who made that course a successful venture during the years 2000-2004, notably Ed Schrader, George Bey and Stan Galicki of Millsaps College, and once again, my colleague James Callaghan.

Finally, I wish to express my appreciation to the faculty and administrators of the University of Richmond who saw fit to award me the D. A. Kuyk endowed chair in Biology for the years 1992-2004. The professional development funds accompanying the chair financed much of field and herbarium work in Yucatan and allowed me to purchase necessary reference materials. In addition, I thank the Faculty Research Committee at the University of Richmond and the Mednick Fund of the Virginia Foundation of Independent Colleges.