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An erudite and entertaining compendium of the meaning and origin of botanical names. An example: nasturtium comes from the Latin for "twisted nose," due to its pungent taste. Also lists some 3,000 of the most widely accepted vernacular names, cross-indexed to the botanical appeliation. This revision and enlargement of Stearn's A Gardener's Dictionary of Plant Names (1972) offers discussions of plant classification, binomial nomenclature, and the structure and pronunciation of botanical Latin. Not illustrated. Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

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Library Journal Review

This volume updates and expands the 1972 Gardener's Dictionary of Plant Names by the same author, which in turn updated A.W. Smith's Gardener's Book of Plant Names (1963). You may want to keep the earlier volumes for their pronunciation guides, but definitely buy the new volume for its inclusion of 6000 botanical names, with definitions and derivations, plus 3000 common names, cross-referenced to their botanical names. This is indisputably the best dictionary of plant names available and is essential for botanical and horticultural libraries. Public libraries on a tight budget that already own Allen Coombes's Dictionary of Plant Names (Timber Pr., 1985) would be safe to pass; others may want to add it for its excellent chapter explaining how plants are named and why plant names change.-- Laura Lipton, Miller Horticulture Lib., Seattle (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Booklist Review

Stearn's Dictionary of Plant Names is based on his A Gardener's Dictionary of Plant Names (1972), which is a revision of A Gardener's Book of Plant Names (1963), by A. W. Smith. Stearn eliminated material from unreliable sources used by Smith and added material from recognized ones. The body of the work consists of approximately 6,000 botanical names deemed "most likely to be encountered by gardeners and horticulturists." The entries emphasize etymology over definition. The section is preceded by an introduction to botanical names and a bibliography of additional readings on the subject. The dictionary of vernacular names that follows lists 3,000 common English plant names with Latin equivalents. This list is preceded by an essay on vernacular plant names by Stearn and a bibliography of sources of other information on popular plant names. Libraries serving serious horticulturists and linguists will need one of the works in this series, as little of the information they contain is to be found in other botanical reference books. Libraries owning either Smith's Gardener's Book (1963) or Stearn's Dictionary (1972) should decide about updating based on the health of the budget. Little has changed since the 1972 work, and changes from the 1963 publicaton are only moderate. (Reviewed Sept. 1, 1993)