BOOK REVIEWS

The Naming of Names

Anna Pavord
Bloomsbury
Distributed by Allen & Unwin
$NZ95
Reviewed by Mike Gowing

HOW plant species - some 422,000 of them - came to be described and named is taken for granted by most of us - the taxonomic puzzles of our own gardens seem quite enough, thank you very much. But the challenge of classifying our natural world, how to make order from chaos, has preoccupied some of history's brightest minds. Here, Anna Pavord, gardening correspondent for the British newspaper, The Independent, brings this quest alive. Her eye for anecdote and detail brings to life philosophers, collectors, apothecaries, botanists and others come to life from the depths of history. Pavord's description of her travels adds further lustre to this intriguing book.

The Naming of Names is such a trove of information, it's cheap even at its fairly hefty price.

Reproduced with permission from the former Weekend Gardener magazine. The views expressed here are not necessarily those of the RNZIH