Explains the patterns method of plant identification, describing eight key patterns for recognizing more than 45,000 species of plants, and includes an illustrated reference guide to plant families.

Provides a basic introduction to twenty five commonly occurring families of flowering plants, chosen for their economic, ornamental and ecological importance. It is designed to enable students of botany and related disciplines to gain some knowledge of the general characteristics of each family and also the relationships between them. An introductory section provides basic botanical information which is often assumed to be known and which is essential for a proper consideration of the families themselves. These are described in the second section of the book. For each family, information on its distribution, classification, general features and economic importance precedes a detailed description of a typical representative species. For the larger or more varied families several representative species are included. The text is illustrated throughout with clear and accurate line diagrams and accompanied by an exhaustive glossary.