Customer Reviews

A Gardener's Handbook of Plant Names: Their Meanings and Origins

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This is reprint of A.W.Smith's classic, which since then has been revised by William T. Stearn as "A Gardener's Dictionary of Plant Names" (1972) and "Stearn's Dictionary of Plant Names for Gardeners" (1992). Comparing it with the latter it is obvious at once that there still is a great similarity, with many entries a 100% identical. The major differences are that the latter has a more modern layout, is updated and contains more information.

This reprint of the original has as bonus points that it is cheaper and includes directions at pronounciation. In some cases it also contains bits of information which were edited out of its modern descendant.

I needed a book to use to give me the derivation of the scientific names for plants found in the wild throughout California. I looked at fifteen books at the University of California Davis Library and checked out five. I found this book to be the most useful of the bunch. It had the name of almost every plant I looked up, whereas most of the others had far fewer. I recommend this book if you want to know the derivation of plant names, whether in the garden or in the wild.

Have owned this book for over two years and use it constantly - has easy to use and understand information and a great pronunciation guide that follows each botanical name...a very helpful tool