Guide to Flowering Plant Families

19951 BOOK REVIEWS The textual comments include the name of the species, author(s), and a selection of synonyms. Recently published views and facts are given under the headings " T a x o n o m y " and "Nomenclature," differing from or completing the treatment in Flora Europaea. Data on the ploidy are included and chromosome n u m b e r listed by each country. When the distributional information given by Flora Europaea is not particularly detailed, as tends to be the case at the level of subspecies, all the pertinent territories are listed for the taxa mapped. "Total range" completes the information about European endemics; or when the total range exceeds the European boundaries, original total range maps are cited. The fact that distribution maps are based on every reliable record and the most up-to-date material and the fact that the literature is cited contribute to its veracity and usefulness. The series is recommended for anyone interested in European vascular plants.--BEAT FISCHER, The New York Botanical Garden, Bronx, N Y 104585126, U.S.A. Guide to Flowering Plant Families. By Wendy B. Z o m l e f e r . U n i v e r s i t y o f N o r t h C a r o l i n a Press, P.O. Box 2 2 8 8 , C h a p e l Hill, North Carolina 27515-2288. ISBN 0 - 8 0 7 8 - 2 1 6 0 - 8 (cloth), 0 - 8 0 7 8 - 4 7 7 0 - 5 (paper). 1994. 4 3 0 pp. $ 5 5 . 0 0 (cloth). $ 2 7 . 5 0 (paper). This beautifully produced book is the culmin a t i o n of the work of many years and incorporates the author's previously published guides. N o w with 130 families, 23 comparative charts, a n d 158 plates of botanical illustrations, it will serve as a course in plant systematics on its own. The emphasis is on families represented in the U n i t e d States and Canada, but since m a n y of these are of cultivated exotic taxa, this text will have a relevancy over a much wider area. Each family has a reasonably complete description along with a shorter "family characterization" giving the most immediately relevant characters botanists use to recognize a family; the n u m b e r of genera and species, both worldwide and in the U.S./Canada; general distribution; major genera; the economic species and their products; an often highly original commentary on the family; and a short but relevant list of references. 341 The eye-catching plates of illustrations for each family will prove useful for both the experienced botanist and the beginning student. The author realized the need for well-illustrated textbooks during her student years, when she found the existing texts either poorly illustrated or out of date. The illustrations have been drawn from living plants and are with little exception clear, scientifically accurate, and aesthetically pleasing. There is a well-illustrated glossary, and a family s u m m a r y chart presents family characters in an abbreviated form. The author generally follows Thorne in the delineation of families, and a few of these circumscriptions will not be familiar to most botanists. The temperate families Aceraceae and Hippocastanaceae are logically united with the large, diverse, and mainly tropical Sapindaceae, with which they would undoubtedly have been originally placed if there were more sapindaceous genera than Acer and Hippocastanum in the north temperate forests where most botanists have lived and worked. In m a n y cases, the author enthusiastically follows the results of cladistic analyses and insists that taxa be monophyletic and not be paraphyletic; the concepts and terminology involved are dearly explained, as is the application in particular cases. Thus, Apiaceae and Araliaceae must be united, even though the two families can be fairly logically and practically defined without undue injustice to phylogeny, and the nature of their relationship has been quite well appreciated long before cladistics are invented. Uncritical and strict reliance on avoiding paraphyly may lead to frivolous results. The Caprifoliaceae (sans Sambucus and Viburnum) may need to be expanded to include the Valerianaceae and Dipsacaceae in order to avoid paraphyly. Would the author also add the Calyceraceae (a small and poorly known family) if it were shown to bear the same relationship? A n d then must the Asteraceae also be brought into the Caprifoliaceae to avoid paraphyly? This monster family would then be so cumbersome as to be meaningless. Incongruously, the Lemnaceae are said to be derived from the Araceae, but both families are allowed to stand; perhaps after a cladistic analysis, these, too, will have to be united. Some arguments of cladists (and not just those of this author) often seem to lack perspective, both biological and historical. 342 BRITTONIA All in all, this is a marvelous b o o k - - c e r t a i n l y , i f not the finest, one o f the finest college-level introductory text books to the flowering plant families. M y s~udents have found the previous WOL. 47 versions o f the Guide to be very satisfactory, a n d I continue to consult m y copies.--MICHAEL NEE, The N e w Y o r k Botanical Garden, Bronx, N e w Y o r k 10458-5126, U.S.A.