The Pretoria method for localizing localities

Localizing specimens and mapping localities has always been a tedious and time-consuming task for which much depends on the data mentioned on the labels. It has been found a blessing if collectors mention on labels the latitude and longitude. If this is given in an exact way it comprises degrees and minutes, e.g. 6° 45’ S, 141° 30’ E. If no dot-map is provided this appears to be a slightly clumsy formula in print and the question arises whether such exact figures are really needed. In scanning a geographical map the minutes will hardly mean something unless one uses local small-scale maps, as one minute is only a little more than 2 km in the terrain. In Pretoria only the degrees are given, joined into one figure, preceding the collector / after the locality. This simplification is, I think, practical and useful.