August 1, 2006 (Vol. 26, No. 14)
URL:
http://andromeda.botany.gu.se/cortbase.html
Rating:
Strong Points: Extensive information
Weak Points: Attitude
Summary:
Cortbase is a nomenclatural database of fungi with systematics sort of thrown into the mix. Based on a publication in Phyloinformatics.org, Cortbase is probably something only a mycologist would love. On the opening page, visitors have search options to ’Check a Name,’ or get ’Data on a Species.’ In addition, they can retrieve names by author from the bibliographic database or find species by partial name. Options for listing all the genera of the database or other miscellaneous choices are also available. The database, which is in MS-DOS format, can be downloaded from the site. Clicking on a genus name brought up, more often than not, a description of rejected species in that genera that seemed like someone on a rant. I’ll defer to others to interpret what that means.
