Written as a reference to be used within University, Departmental, Public, Institutional, Herbaria, and Arboreta libraries, this book provides the first starting point for better access to data on medicinal and poisonous plants. Following on the success of the author's CRC World Dictionary of Plant Names and the CRC World Dictionary of Grasses, the author provides the names of thousands of genera and species of economically important plants. It serves as an indispensable time-saving guide for all those involved with plants in medicine, food, and cultural practices as it draws on a tremendous range of primary and secondary sources. This authoritative lexicon is much more than a dictionary. It includes historical and linguistic information on botany and medicine throughout each volume.

The list contains accepted names for genera, species, subspecies, and varieties, authors of plant names; family names; and symbols for scientific names, source manuals, plant habits and regions of distribution.

This book is an up-to-date checklist of the current valid taxonomyfor all vascular plants, bryophytes, and lichens in British Columbia,including synonyms, species codes, and other information. A convenient,geographically restricted, comprehensive checklist like this one willaid greatly in avoiding the present confusion concerning the names ofmany species in the ecological and systematic literature, as well as inapplied fields. The book is organized into three sections. Part 1 organizes speciesalphabetically according to taxonomic order by families of vascularplants, bryophytes, and lichens. Within each family, the genera arelisted alphabetically, along with any synonomies (former names) andcommon names. In Part 2 species are organized alphabetically accordingto their scientific names. Part 3 lists common names followed by theirscientific names. Excluded names (names inappropriately applied toplants in B.C.) are given in an appendix. Those familiar with planttaxonomy will find Part 1 particularly helpful when checkingnomenclature; semi-professionals familiar with scientific names willuse Part 2 and then Part 1; those who know only common names will checkPart 3 and then Part 2 and Part 1 to determine families. There is presently considerable confusion about many species namesin B.C. Plant names change for many reasons and new plants invade.Information about plants in B.C. is scattered in several checklists,most of them incomplete or out of date; for some species, such asliverworts, no provincial checklist even exists. This checklisttherefore will be useful to all professionals working with vegetationand for students in agriculture, botany, ecology, forestry and othersciences. Although the focus is on B.C., the book will also be usefuloutside the province, particularly in the northwest American states andin Alberta and the Yukon.