Flowers and Plants of Victoria in Colour

This book with its 543 colour illustrations fills a gap that has existed for many years in Australian books of flora. No comprehensive colourful guide to the Victorian flowers and plants has previously been as-sembled. Almost one fifth of all the native plants occurring in the state are illustrated in full colour, and each illustration is accompanied by a descriptive caption.

The captions give the common and scientific names, the flowering time and the characteristics of the plants.

These captions are further supported in chapters that describe the general grouping of the plants and the environment in which they live.

Cross references from the text to the plates, and the extensive index make the book an invaluable field guide. This aspect is further advanced by grouping the illustrated plants in sections according to their most commonly occurring habitats. Thus plants most likely to be found in coastal areas, on heathlands, in mountain forests, or the alpine areas, etc. appear in the appropriate sections of the book.

The captions and text introduce many revised names and the book is a valuable contribution to Victorian botany in this regard alone. The bulk of the illustrations have been obtained by two Victorian photographers, B. A. Fuhrer and E. R. Rotherham, who traversed the state from the alpine areas to the coastal plains, and from the near desert parts of the Mallee to the dense jungle valleys of East Gippsland, to secure their pictures.

The text has been compiled by J. H. Willis and G. Ross Cochrane, both scientists of wide repute. The techniques of modern colour photography, coupled with the latest skills of colour reproduction and printing, combine to make Flowers and Plants of Victoria an aesthetically pleasing book and a reference work of great value to the serious botanist, the amateur naturalist and the interested layman.

Casual journeys in the state, and botanical expe-ditions, will be made more interesting and enjoyable by the use of Flowers and Plants of Victoria as a field guide. The inclusion of so many separate colour plates in a single volume is a publishing "first" in Australia and makes for an irresistible book of natural history. 

Jacket illustration: The pink form of Common Heath (Epacris impressa) is Victoria's floral emblem.