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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Beautiful Little Gem!, December 3, 2000
My wife and I were given a copy of this pretty little book as a gift several years ago. We like it as much for the beautiful paintings and drawings (done by the author) as for the large amount of information it contains. The paintings are typically full page, colors well reproduced, and size large enough to show accurate details of the flower parts. These are really works of art. This book doesn't cover all wildflowers, but does a great job helping us to identify and enjoy spring/early summer wildflowers in the northeast. Judging by the Amazon ranking of sales of the book, it isn't particularly well known. That's understandable, given that it was published by a university press (Ohio University) 24 years ago. But in my opinion, it's one of those little gems to keep and pass on to your children. The price is very reasonable for a good quality hardcover book with this kind of content. In a foreword to the book, the Director of the Denver Botanic Gardens refers to its "soundly scientific base". Sounds good to me. I'm not a botanist (I'm a retired engineer), but I do like the amount of information giveen on each plant. I especially like being given the origin of every one of those funny-sounding quasi-Latin names, along with pronunciation aids. Because the written information is always on page facing the (usually) full page illustration of each flower, I don't have to thumb through the book looking for the picture. I do find myself having to refer often to the glossary of botanical terms at the back of the book, but that's relatively easy to do, and a fair price to pay for the extra information in the descriptions.
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by June Carver Roberts
