Shinners & Mahler's Illustrated Flora of North Central Texas, by George M. Diggs, Jr., Barney L. Lipscomb, and Robert J. O'Kennon [Review]

95 + $7.42 tax + $7.50 shipping.This book with over 1600 pages and good hard covers weighs a ton and I would not want to carry it in a packsack while out in the field studying the vegetation.It does however contain a wealth of information and will be invaluable when identifying plants of the northern central part of the state of Texas.It "is the first publication of the Illustrated Texas Floras Project, a collaborative project of the Austin College Centre for Environmental Studies and the Botanical Research Institute of Texas to produce illustrated floristic treatments designed to be useful to both botanical specialists and a more general audience', and is dedicated to Lloyd H. Shinners and William F. Mahler for their contributions to Texas botany.The first 75 pages are devoted to an Overview of the Book, Geographic Area Covered, Information Helpful in Using the Flora, Summary Data on the Flora, New Combinations made in this Book (Gutierrezia amoena, Mirabilis latifolia, and Manfreda virginica subsp.lata), Author's Note (a request for corrections, comments and specimens that would be helpful for improvements to a future edition), an overview of North Central Texas (Geology, Soils, Climate, Blackland Prairie, Cross Timbers and Prairies, Red River Area, Origin of the North Central Texas Flora, Conservation in North Central Texas, and a Sketch of the History of Botany in Texas with Emphasis on North Central Texas).This is followed by 32 pages containing 174 excellent colour pictures.In this volume a total of 168 families comprising of 854 genera and 2223 species (1829 native and 394 introduced) are found in an area encompassing 40 000 square miles (=+103 600 square kilometers), about 46% of the species in Texas in about 15% of the land area.The main text begins on page 109 with keys to major plant groups: Lycopodiophyta, Equisetophyta, Polypodiophyta, Pinophyta, Gnetophyta, Dicotyledonae, and Monocotyledonae, Keys to Ferns and Similar Plants, Keys to Gymnoperms, Keys to Aquatic Plants, Keys to Monocots, and General Key to All Families.The General Key is modified from Key and Descriptions for the Vascular Plant Families of Oklahoma (Tyrl et al. 1994) to which numerous couplets have been added to cover plants which occur in North Central Texas, but not in Oklahoma, but no couplets have been deleted from the Oklahoma family key, thus making it useful to both Oklahoma and Texas users.Within each of the groups listed above, the families, genera and species are in alphabetical order.

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