Plants in The Books Store

The diverse external shapes and structures that make up flowering plants can be bewildering and even daunting, as can the terminology used to describe them. An understanding of plant form-plant morphology-is essential to appreciating the wonders of the plant world and to the study of botany and horticulture at every level. In this ingeniously designed volume, the complex subject becomes both accessible and manageable. The first part of the book describes and clearly illustrates the major plant structures that can be seen with the naked eye or a hand lens: leaf, root, stem, reproductive organs, and seedlings; special sections focus on vegetative propagation, and the morphology of grasses, orchids, and cacti. However, plants are dynamic organisms, constantly growing, changing, and becoming more elaborate, and understanding the development of a plant or plant part is as important as describing its final form. Part II focuses on how plants grow: bud development, the growth of reproductive organs, leaf arrangement, branching patterns, and the accumulation and loss of structures. This classic book, now revised and expanded to include the latest information on plant morphology, more than 1000 exquisite line drawings including 119 that are new to this edition, and nearly twice as many photographs as the previous edition, is remarkable for its user-friendly organization, high-quality illustrations, and extensive cross-referencing. Aimed at students of botany and horticulture, enthusiastic gardeners and amateur naturalists, it functions as an illustrated dictionary, a basic course in plant morphology, and an intriguing and enlightening book to dip into.

The Marie Selby Botanical Gardens Illustrated Dictionary of Orchid Genera is the most comprehensive and extensively illustrated account of orchid genera to date. Its concise entries provide details of nomenclature, classification, original publication, etymology, and geographic range, along with a brief description and color images of representative flowers.

The dictionary describes not only all of the 850 orchid genera that are recognized today but also those genera known only from fossil records, published before Linnaeus, validly published (but not accepted), and invalidly published according to the standards of the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature, as well as those that have variant names or spellings. In addition to the alphabetic entries, this dictionary includes an introduction to orchid biology, a glossary, a list of taxonomists credited with publishing new orchid genera, key references and bibliographical abbreviation list, and the governing nomenclature rules. The Marie Selby Botanical Gardens Illustrated Dictionary of Orchid Genera also features a Foreword by Peter H. Raven and an Introduction on the biology of orchids by David Benzing that describes the August 2007 discovery of the world's oldest unequivically orchidaceous fossil.