New England Wild Flower Society's FLORA NOVAE ANGLIAE: A Manual for the Identification of Native and Naturalized Higher Vascular Plants of New England by Arthur Haines, Elizabeth Farnsworth, Gordon Morrison

2013·0.48 MB·English

by  Review By: Helen Jeude

1
BOOK REVIEW
Arthur
Haines, with illus. by Euzabeth Farnsworth and Gordon Morrison. 2011.
FLORA NOVAE A
ANGLIAE: Manual
Society’s for the Identification of Native and
Naturalized
New
Higher Vascular
Plants of England.
(ISBN: 978-0-300-17154-9,
cloth). Yale University Press,
P.O.
New
Box
209040, Haven, Connecticut 06520-9040, US. A. (Orders: www.yalebooks.com,
1-203-432-
1-203-432-8485
0163, fax). $85.00, 1008 945 b/w 7" x 9
pp., illus.,
‘A".
The
New
stales of Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, Hampshire, Rhode and Vermont
Island, are
usually
New
considered the England area and they are the focus of this much needed, new and updated study
of
their
New
flora. In 2001 the England Wild Flower
Society hired Haines to visit every herbarium in the area and
check
out every rare plant specimen to determine if it still existed in the area, if it had been properly identified,
and
named.
correctly His two-year study
of the specimens
indicated that one of every twelve specimens
re-
1 to correct a misidentification or to identify a new species or infraspecific taxon that had
had
been
it collected.” Although a couple of new had been
floras for the area published previ-
ously, they primarily on
relied M.L. Femald’s 1950
edition (the 8th) of Gray’s Manual of Botany. This new vol-
ume
based on
is the outstanding work
of current and
recently deceased and
botanists, a treasure-house of
it is
excellent research, and
field studies, dedication
to botany.
Following
a very
helpful Introduction and an
updated
Glossary of Terminology, the Key to the Fami-
is
The
lies, pp. 1-37. heart of the book, though,
the whole
is set of taxonomic treatments 39-890). These aie
(pp.
divided
into the subgroups
Lycophytes,
Monilophytes, Gymnosperms
Maenoliids Monocots, and
r &
.
Tricolpates.
Cited
^ section. This is an amazing citing of the works of some of the
most Mcated”!nd
^r^'^d
this section. You will undoubtedly
recognize name
name
after of botanists that you know or have known in the
past—
recent
or perhaps, you
simply
recognize through
your reading—
and whose research and contributions
have made
huge
a
contribution
to understanding
New
better the
T flora of England.
contribution. The New
England
Wild Flower has provided a great
Society
Research
USA Institute of
Texas