Systematic botany of flowering plants, 2nd edn.
Spichiger R-E, Savolainen V, Figeat M, Jeanmond D. eds. 2004.
Enfield, New Hampshire: Science Publishers, Inc. $58(softback). 413 pp. plus CD-ROM.
|
The introductory chapters should be accessible to a general botanical student. Some basic plant morphology is introduced in the chapter ‘From Algae to Angiosperms’, along with an outline of the evolution of land plants. References are few and now somewhat dated; neither Endress's Diversity and evolutionary biology of tropical flowers (1994) nor Kubitzki's The families and genera of vascular plants (1990 onwards, currently at seven volumes) rate a mention, and anglophone students will not be able to use the few French-language references mentioned. In this part of the book in particular there is much talk about trends, archetypes, and archaic and higher groups. After a summary of the classification followed, the selected families are briefly described and illustrated. There are summary floral formulae, and most families have floral diagrams, a very effective but under-utilized method of showing many features of basic floral organization. However, the inflorescence axis is not indicated in these diagrams, which is unfortunate since one third of the monocots (but not Orchidaceae) are drawn with the median tepal of the outer whorl in the adaxial position. This condition predominates in broad-leaved angiosperms, and even if it is commoner in monocots than is generally thought, is it this common? A considerable amount of information about useful plants is also included, along with size, distribution and particularly notable genera of the family, placement of the family in some of the old evolutionary systems, and a few miscellaneous notes; there are no references in this part. The illustrations include very clean and effective line drawings and usually two or more SEMs that are a rather unusual feature in texts such as this but complement the other illustrations nicely. The rather unorthodox identification key to tropical families is accompanied by thumbnail sketches in the margin, and it emphasizes how much variation there is in the vegetative plant body. A key like this should stimulate the student to look at plants carefully, and realise, for example, that apparently similar trunks of trees can be constructed in dramatically different ways.
The authors note in the Preface that they follow ‘the overall classification of the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group’, but in fact there are many unexplained differences between the classification used here and that of the APG (2003; Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society 141: 399–436), and the phylogenetic trees are difficult to follow. That based on the APG classification inexplicably does not show the magnoliid group, that showing the general outline of the taxonomic organization of the book is not really a phylogeny at all, while that showing the classification of embryophytes signals four polyphyletic groups, although from the tree one of these is monophyletic and three paraphyletic. There is confusion over Celtidaceae (properly Cannabaceae, no longer in Ulmaceae), while Saxifragaceae are inexplicably said to include Parnassiaceae and Hydrangeaceae, families that are not at all close, and this was added in the second edition. (The reference to the 2003 version of the APG system was added to the English translation—not surprisingly, it is absent from the French edition of 2002—and this may have caused some confusion. The system followed is closer to the 1999 version of APG, although there are major differences even from this; in fact the versions of 1999 and 2003 differ only in detail.) The discussion on the circumscription of Liliales gets things backwards, and to call Gnetum and its relatives pre-angiosperms that are ‘intermediate’ between gymnosperms and angiosperms (in the glossary) is hardly helpful. Indeed, the glossary needs attention; although it includes many medicinal terms, useful for those not familiar with this literature, a number of the definitions are incorrect or incomplete—including, most unfortunately, that for monophyletic.
The translation is overly literal, words like spiralate, bayonette and unisexuate being rather jarring. Readers may also be puzzled to know that Cordaitales and Poaceae alike have rubanate venation, Dipterocarpaceae show the ‘phenomenon of timidity at cymes’, Bauhinia has leaves ‘in the form of a beef steak’ (colleagues guessed this meant Begonia, but not all cuts of steak look alike), and Dichapetalaceae have a ‘scar on petiole or on the base of the blade emerging from inflorescences’. There are mistakes or questionable interpretations which should have beencaught—conifers with endosperm, the male cone of gymnosperms being made up of sporophylls each with two microsporangia, Myristicaceae characterized by having a very short aril, and so on; what virtual gametangia and virtual sporophylls—in angiosperms and mosses respectively—are, we are not told. Indeed, one wonders where the editors were. Coupled with the copious use of terms that may be unfamiliar to a more general reader— and are anyhow mostly unnecessary—like isoprothally, homoiochlamydeous, gynogonium and dialycarpic, the book is not an easy read.
In its present form, this book cannot be recommended to a general reader. This is a pity, because with its welcome tropical orientation and its superb illustrative material—which, however, can be appreciated for its own worth—it has the potential to fill a niche in the market for books introducing land plant diversity. A corrected edition will be a valuable addition to the botanical literature.
CiteULike 
Connotea 
Del.icio.us What's this?
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||