Descripciones mejoradas de Syndetics:

This book provides both a handy reference to the scientific names of plants and a clear written account of the ways in which the naming of plants has changed with time and why these changes were necessary. It deals with the problems of using common names of plants against the historical background of our increasing discrimination of kinds of plants. It then goes on to consider landmarks in the standardization of both common and 'scientific' names and the development of internationally agreed principles governing the formation and use of names in botany, sylviculture, agriculture and horticulture. From the alphabetical list the reader may interpret the scientific names of plants from any part of the world.

Tabla de contenidos provista por Syndetics

• Preface to the first edition(p. vii)
• Preface to the fourth edition(p. ix)
• The nature of the problem(p. 1)
• The size of the problem(p. 4)
• Towards a solution to the problem(p. 9)
• The rules of botanical nomenclature(p. 14)
• Family names(p. 16)
• Generic names(p. 17)
• Species names(p. 20)
• Epithets commemorating people(p. 20)
• Geographical epithets(p. 22)
• Categories below the rank of species(p. 22)
• Hybrids(p. 23)
• Synonymy and illegitimacy(p. 24)
• The International Code of Nomenclature for Cultivated Plants(p. 26)
• Graft chimaeras(p. 29)
• Glossary(p. 30)
• Figures(p. 413)
• Bibliography(p. 421)
• Index(p. 424)

Reseñas proporcionadas por Syndetics

CHOICE Review

This is a small, narrowly focused volume that includes a history of plant naming and a list of meanings of plant names. The first third of the book deals with how plants have been named over the years, the necessity of a standardized naming system, and the rules of botanical nomenclature as set up by the International Botanical Congress. The remaining two-thirds is a glossary containing, in one alphabet so they do not appear together, genus and species names with one word or short phrase meanings. More information is provided by Allen J. Coombes in Dictionary of Plant Names (CH, Feb '86) which gives, in addition to name meanings, family, common name, country of origin, and hardiness of each genus. The hardcover price for Gledhill's slim volume is very high, but it could be useful in botanical collections for the brief historical survey and the list of name meanings.-E.L. Williams, Vassar College