Michael G. Simpson

As a mere aficionado of plant sciences, I was happily surprised at how clear this volume turned out to be. Although the chapter on systematic techniques flew well over my head, the rest of the book is a plethora of useful information (which, amongst other things, finally clarified what a "vascular bundle" and in particular "scattered vascular bundles" that confused me in Zomlefer's Guide to flowering plant families). The evolution chapters are a fascinating trek through the evolution of plants, and the later chapters provide much vocabulary (although at times rather idiosyncratic, in particular tat related to perianth and ovule positioning). A better structuring might have helped to avoid significant duplication of information between the evolutionary sections and the later ones, which open repeat the same information, and better cross-referencing would have been appreciated.… (altro)