Choukas-Bradley, Melanie. 2004 An I...

Choukas-Bradley, Melanie. 2004 An Illustrated Guide to Eastern Woodland Wildflowers and Tree Illustrated from Tina Thieme Brown. University of Virginia Pres Charlottesville, Virginia. 424 pages. ISBN 0-8139-2251-8 3995

Warning-Here is an example of a accurately good book that has a actual misleading title. How excited I was to receive it, a modern book covering eastern plants. The flyer says it is "a remarkably helpful resource...for botanical enthusiasts across the continent." Alas, it is a exceedingly specialized book dealing with 350 wildflowers and leafy plants found on Sugarloaf Mountain, Maryland. It reminds me of my high teach library in Charlotte, North Carolina, where the and nothing else book on plant identification was Shinner's "Spring Flora of the Dallas/Ft. Worth Area." A great local guide it would be, further it is not a main division with a broad coverage. Ironically, since its title does not mention Sugarloaf Mountain, those who might find of the like kind a book useful may rise above it. This is too bad since the author and illustrator behold Sugarloaf as a test case of efforts to secure a rural natural area threatened according to sprawl.

The drawings are quite good; and the tonics are accurate, though they are not user-friendly for beginners. You first direct the eye at the flowers, and then you gaze at the leaves. Can you imagine your first time trying to identify a r maple by dint of looking at the flowers forward a leafless branch? The tonics need to be indented and numbered for easy use. The glossary is upright and has some very nice drawings. The main division is well produced, appealing to gaze at, and filled with plant detail, granting not nearly as useful as an identification tool for beginners as Newcomb's Wildflower Guide. It deals with the alone significant mountain in the Maryland piedmont. I just wish the title were more revealing.-T. LAWRENCE MELLICHAMP, BIOLOGY DEPARTMENT, UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA AT CHARLOTTE, CHARLOTTE, NORTH CAROLINA 28223

T LAWRENCE MELLICHAMP, BIOLOGY DEPARTMENT, UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA AT CHARLOTTE, CHARLOTTE, NORTH CAROLINA 28223

Copyright Southern Appalachian Botanical Society Mar 2005

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