[.uk] Plant Systematics (ISBN 0126444609)

Simpson, M. Plant Systematics:
One of the best plant systematics texts on the market. Highly recommend for any college-level botanist or aspiriing botanist. Covers a large subject in a lot of depth, and does so in a very informative and easy-to-understand manner.

Likable:
This is the book that competes with the award-winning "Plant Systematics: A Phylogenetic Approach" for the spot as the introductory text on modern plant systematics and comes out ahead. Quite noticeable are the color photographs (instead of the sometimes not so brilliant line-drawings) which makes this a more friendly book to leaf through. Also noticeable is a hefty chapter on plant morphology. This book appears to be considerably more balanced than its competitor. However, the book is not without its downsize: in this age of brilliant color printing the photographs do appear a little lackluster. Browsing through the chapter on nomenclature some errors catch the eye (not untypical; nomenclature not being a favorite topic among plant taxonomists): perhaps the worst is that etymology of family names is given! Ouch.