Acknowledgments

The authors thank the following persons and institutions for cooperation and help:

Beijing Press, Beijing, for permission to reproduce line drawings from Ying, T.S., Zhang, Y.L. & D.E.Boufford: The endemic genera of seed plants of China (1993) and Wang, W.T., Pan, K.Y., Zhang, Z.Y. & Li, Z.Y., Gesneriaceae. In: Flora reipublicae popularis sinicae 69 (1990)

Jeanne Katzenstein, American Gloxinia and Gesneriad Society, for permission to reproduce drawings and photographs from "The Gloxinian"

B. L. Burtt, Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, Scotland, UK, for continuous cooperation and sharing knowledge over three decennia

James F. Smith, Dept. of Biology, Boise State University, Boise, Idaho, USA, for reading the descriptions

John K. Boggan, Dept. of Botany, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC, USA, for providing manifold information on neotropical Gesneriaceae

Alain Chautems, Conservatoire et Jardin Botanique de la Ville de Genève, CH, for providing valuable information and photographs since many years

Michael Möller, Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, Scotland, UK, for providing information on African Gesneriaceae

Li Zhen-Yu, State Key Laboratory of Systematic and Evolutionary Botany, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Bijing, China

Wang Yin-Zheng, State Key Laboratory of Systematic and Evolutionary Botany, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Bijing, China

Wilhelm Barthlott, Botanisches Institut und Botanischer Garten Bonn, Germany, for providing excellent photographs of various plant families

Susanne Sontag, Institute of Botany, University of Vienna, A, for manifold technical assistance

Monika Paschinger, Johannes Selinger and Susanne Gockner-Mayer, Institute of Botany, University of Vienna, A, for typing work