BOOK REVIEWS

Guide to Species Irises
Their Identification and Cultivation

By the Species Group of the British Iris Society
Published by Cambridge University Press, 1 December 1995
$NZ220

Reviewed by Mike Oates

This volume provides a comprehensive, botanically detailed and up-to-date survey of the irises. It follows in the footsteps of "The Genus Iris" by W. R. Dykes early in the century. Following the pattern of the original Dykes monograph, botanical details, cultivation suggestions and general comments are supplied, and the work is illustrated with line drawings, colour photographs of unusual species and distribution maps.

This new survey includes all of the species which have been described so far this century and takes into account the many changes in classification which have taken place in the group. Information currently scattered in the literature is brought together in one volume to provide an authoritative reference for professional botanists and growers, and a mine of useful information for amateur gardeners and iris enthusiasts.

New Zealand Garden Journal: Journal of the Royal New Zealand Institute of Horticulture 1996 1(1): 24

Reviews Main Page