BOOK REVIEWS

The Enthusiasts Book of Gardening Latin
Proper Names & Terms Explained

Michael Streeter
Past Times
Distributed by Bookwise
$NZ15.95

THOSE who sweated over Latin at school have the jump on the rest of us when it comes to trying to remember botanical names. This is a helpful little catch-up book.

The introduction is a concise explanation of plant classification and how Latin came to be used to describe plants. The meaning of many Latin terms - for colour and markings, habitat, shape and size and so on - are explained. The book concludes with a glossary of plants and an explanation of the Latin in their names.

If nothing else, Gardening Latin could help mount a counter attack against a tedious botanical name-dropper. Dubbing their highly prized plant "tragophyllus" (leaves with a goat-like smell) might just stifle them.

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