alpha taxonomy analogous to the return to morphologicalstudy predicted by Professor Bennett in his Nancy T.Burbidge Memorial Lecture (Monocotyledons volume),then they will be even more successful than the resultspublished here already demonstrate.

The books are well produced, following the format ofSoderstrom et al. (1987) fairly closely. The proceedings ofthe First International Symposium on the ComparativeBiology of the Monocotyledons (Rudall et al., 1995) had asmaller page size and came out in two softback volumes.The larger page size of these volumes makes the ®gureseasier to see, although the books are quite large and heavyto handle.

I regret the decision to abbreviate the word monocoty-ledons even on the front cover of a book; these plants neverhave one `cot' but often have one cotyledon. Matt paperwould have made reading the text easier on the eyes: theshiny paper used re¯ects arti®cial light. Overall thepresentation of maps, graphs, illustrations etc. is of highquality but there is a great deal of variation in thicknessesof lines, type faces, and depth of shading. These problemsare more common in the Grasses volume where, forinstance, the line drawings on pp. 371±379 should nothave been accepted for publication. Many contributorshave prepared their ®gures on computer and, at times, thisis all too visible in the form of pixellation, see, for examples,the photomicrographs on pp. 151±152 and 264 of theGrasses volume and Plate 5 in the Monocotyledons volume.Several of the maps, including those on pp. 52, 164 and336±343 of the Grasses volume and 408 and 638±640 of theMonocotyledons volume have been plotted on digitizedoutlines at the wrong level of resolution, producing anunpleasant stepped appearance in print. Most of the ®guresare phylograms and here there is huge variation in quality,sometimes within one paper. Compare ®gures 1 and 2 ofWilkin & Caddick with ®gure 3 (Monocotyledons volume,pp. 497±504); the lettering in the ®rst two ®gures is badlybroken up whereas ®gure 3 is crystal clear. I think bothcontributors and editors could have been a bit moredemanding in this respect without causing undue delay orextra expense in production.

There are very few spelling mistakes, as one has come toexpect in the days of spell-checkers. The few I noticedtended to be inconsistent uses of accented characters innames of people. The only mistake I found in the referencesis the name Gris appearing before Grant in an alphabeticallist (Monocotyledons volume, p. 342).

Individuals may be dissuaded from buying these volumesby the very wide subject area they cover and the price.Botanical libraries in research institutes and universities willneed to have them as they synthesize the state of taxonomicresearch in the monocotyledons at the end of the 1990s.

LITERATURE CITED

Rudall PJ, Cribb PJ, Cutler DF, Humphries CJ. 1995.Monocotyledons:systematics and evolution. 2 vols. Kew: Royal Botanic Gardens.

Schlechter R. 1912. Die Orchidaceen von Deutsch-Neu-Guinea. FeddesRepertorium, Beiheft 1: 440±643.

Soderstrom TH, Hilu KW, Campbell CS, Barkworth ME. 1987. Grasssystematics and evolution. WashingtonDCSmithsonian InstitutionPress.

Mark Newman# 2001 Annals of Botany Company

doi:10.1006/anbo.2001.1373

Woodward DW. 2000. Contemporary plant systematics. 3rdedn. 569 pp, with free CD ROM: Photo atlas of vascularplants. Michigan: Andrews University Press. $64.95.

Student textbooks on plant systematics are rather thin onthe ground, so I was pleased to see this, but humbled as Iwas unaware of the two previous editions. Woodwardidenti®es his audience as undergraduate students (with biastowards North American university courses) and theserious amateur gardener/botanist with a basic knowledgeof biology. Initial chapters give solid grounding in the manyelements comprising systematics research. Starting with arefreshing discussion on the purpose and signi®cance ofsystematics, Woodward leads the reader through the formand function of plant names, identi®cation techniques andplant collection methods. These often dry subjects areenlivened with frequent well-chosen examples, good illus-trations and a compelling writing style. Important facts arehighlighted, terms emboldened when ®rst used and thenexplained.

Having established a base level of systematics knowledge,students are shown the biology and great diversity ofvascular plant life. Plants are treated under their traditionalmajor groupings (Pteridophytes and allies, Gymnosperms,Dicots and Monocots), each with its own introduction tospecial terminology, discussion of reproductive biology (lifecycles, etc.), and tabulated classi®cation of group members.Family is used as the basic unit of classi®cation, and a fullpage is given over to each. Twenty-two families ofPteridophytes and allies, 14 of Gymnosperms, 200 ofDicots, and 40 of Monocots are included. Flowering plantfamilies are arranged systematically within subclasses andorders ( following a Cronquist system). Illustrations (ofrather variable quality) are provided for each family, alongwith `nutshell' information under the headings: generaldescription; leaves; ¯owers; fruit; seed distribution;economic value; classi®cation; and fossil record. Compar-able information is given for non-¯owering vascular plants.Flowering plants are given special consideration withextensive discussion of morphological characters. This issupplemented with a well-illustrated glossary of morpho-logical terminology broken down within related characters(e.g. stems, leaf apex, leaf margins, fruits, etc.). This formatworks well when parsing for terms to describe a feature, anda text-only A±Z glossary is provided at the end of the bookfor those looking up unfamiliar words. The full glossaryrepeats the de®nitions, but unfortunately does not includecross-references to the excellent illustrations in the maintext.

The last 100 pages of the main text push the studentfurther, exploring more deeply the processes and results of

706 Book Reviews

systematics research. Detailed essays bring in discussionson: history and development of classi®cation; literature ofsystematics; contemporary views of the origin of vascularplants; and contemporary methods of studying plants (aseries of guest accounts by specialists). These ful®l two ofthe author's objectivesÐto teach botanical facts and torelate them to systematics. His third objective is to show therelevance of systematics to society. Woodward brings in thisimportant theme throughout his book, but most forcefullyin two chapters on preserving plant biodiversity and therole of botanical gardens in society, and in the frank wordsof his epilogue.

Systematics is a knowledge-based discipline that is greatlyfacilitated by fast access to relevant information. A chapteris dedicated to the literature of systematics with very usefullistings of important source publications, and a verythorough listing of the main ¯oras of the world is providedin Appendix II. A great deal of information is now availableelectronically via the Internet. Key websites are given in thepreface, and in the main text. Recently published works arereferenced throughout the book evidencing the substantialrevision going into this third edition.

As in the second edition an accompanying CD-ROM,compatible with PC (Windows 95 or higher) and Macintosh(OS 7.5 or higher) computers, contains the latest edition ofPhoto atlas of vascular plants. This contains over 4700colour images representing more than 270 families and 1150genera, in a good mixture of plant portraits and close-ups.Other interesting botanical features appear in the atlas,

such as several photographs showing the cultivation ofGinseng in China.

The family accounts form a large part of the work, andalthough valuable for the information they contain, theyare let down by the often poor quality of the illustrations(poor reproduction is probably the reason as the ®rstedition is much crisper). Those whose appetite has beenwhetted should look towards Heywood's Flowering plantsof the world (1978 and later editions), Zomlefer's Floweringplant families (1994) or Judd et al.'s Plant systematics: aphylogenetic approach for more accurate, technical illus-trations. Having said this, Contemporary plant systematicscovers much more than these other more specializedvolumes, is very well written and reasonably priced. It isan ideal textbook for courses in introductory plantsystematics.

LITERATURE CITED

Heywood VH, ed. 1978. Flowering plants of the world. Oxford:Andromeda Oxford Ltd.

Judd WS, Campbell CS, Kellogg EA, Stevens PF. 1999. Plantsystematics: a phylogenetic approach. Sunderland, Massachusetts:Sinauer Associates, Inc.

Zomlefer WB. 1994. Guide to ¯owering plant families. Chapel Hill, NC:University of North Carolina Press.

Dr Mark Watson# 2001 Annals of Botany Company

Book Reviews 707