Books and Good Reading.
Title:
Wild Flowers of
Things I particularly liked are
as follows: All the information on botanic
classification you could wish for is there, but everything is set out in
extremely straightforward language. I have never before seen such a
clear explanation of the various groupings of the plants – and having
a small photograph of a typical flower head to illustrate the different
groups is a brilliant idea, and saves having to trawl through the whole
book just to identify one particular plant. Each plant is illustrated by a
minimum of two photographs – one showing it actually growing, and the
other a close-up of the flower, seed-pod or leaf, to help in
identification. At the end of the description
about each plant are a series of symbols which tell you how widespread
the plant is, how tall it grows, at what altitude you might expect to
find it, whether it is poisonous, medicinal, edible, rare or just
decorative. Also at the end of each
description is a chart which shows you the flowering period – which is
blindingly obvious, of course, but very useful. The text is clear, interesting
and in plain language. A special mention here ought to go to Jill
Pittinger, the translator, who has done a first-class job. She must
obviously be a flower enthusiast herself, because the original Greek has
been translated into flawless English, with none of the garbled,
half-strangled descriptions you might expect Whilst on the subject of the
text, it also includes interesting information – not just botanical
– with reference to the plant’s incidence in mythology, or use in
ancient times. There are useful fold-out
half-covers at the front and back of the book, if you want to mark a
place of interest. These half-covers contain a small measuring scale,
photographs of the various flower forms (with explanatory information),
and illustrations of what is meant by the different descriptions of the
leaves. There is a useful bibliography
at the end, containing a list of more than twenty five other relevant
flower books, in English, Greek, German and French. I sat down and worked through
this very readable book, cover to cover, and was sorry when I reached
the end. It does not pretend to include every flower that is found in If you only buy one book about
the flowers of Reviewer. |