Bulb books

Jane McGary janemcgary@earthlink.net
Wed, 07 Dec 2005 10:05:08 PST
Linda asked,

I am looking at getting The Color Encyclopedia of Cape Bulbs, and am
>wondering if any of you have it, and would you recommend it.  I'm not close
>to a library or book store so I can't check it out before buying.
>I'm hoping it has info in it on Albuca bulbs.  My collection is quickly
>growing and there is little info available.

I highly recommend this book, which I reviewed in the Rock Garden Quarterly 
when it came out. However, there are two things to consider with regard to 
it: (1) it covers ONLY the Cape region of South Africa, and plants of the 
covered genera that grow elsewhere do not appear in it; and (2) the 
treatment of many genera, particularly in the Iridaceae, reflects the 
extreme "lumping" viewpoint of one of the authors, Goldblatt, and may be 
confusing to readers, especially since the alphabetical list does not 
contain blind entries (cross-references), and you have to look the 
traditional names up in the index to find out what genus they've now landed in.

Jane McGary
Northwestern Oregon, USA



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