china and asia

Provides a unique introduction into the plant life of Brunei. Accessible text is accompanied by beautiful watercolours making this title suitable for both the naturalist and professional alike.

A beautiful and colourful overview of the twenty seven species of Philippine pitcher plants (Nepenthes). Several species featured in this work have been discovered only in the last two years and are documented here for the very first time.

This lavishly illustrated guide book consists of a short introduction to Nepenthes, followed by an overview of the species known from the Philippines (complete with full page map). Each species is then profiled over two pages with the use of three images (most of which have never been published before) and a brief, but detailed text summary written in clear, easy-to-understand English. Concluding sections cover Nepenthes hybrids, conservation of Philippine pitcher plants, a bibliography, and an index.

Vietnam’s cycads, many of which have been named only in the last 10-15 years, occupy a variety of specialised habitats. Some are obligate beach-dwellers, some live only in the northern mountains, some occur on small offshore islands, while some grow in tiny crevices on near-vertical limestone cliffs. Many are found in areas of spectacular natural beauty. Vietnam’s cycads are as diverse in their morphology as they are in their habitats. Some have tree-like form reaching 12 metres in height while others are bonsai-like dwarfs. Some have strange swollen ‘elephant’s foot’ trunks. Some have pinnate leaves reaching 4.5 m in length while others have multiple leaf bifurcations. This book describes each of the 27 species in detail with line drawings, maps and numerous photographs.

This is a useful guide to the species of ginger, their botany, economic value, distribution, with keys for identification.

The Kinabalu flora includes about 5000 species of vascular plants, of which some 12 percent are ferns. They occur from the lowest elevations to the highest and in every conceivable habitat, are common as terrestrial species and as epiphytes, and not a few are found mostly on rock outcrops. The first fern specimens from the mountain were obtained by Hugh Low in 1851, and they have been actively collected ever since. The inventory of ferns published in 1992 (Parris, Beaman & Beaman) included 593 taxa (excluding the Lycopodiaceae and Selaginellaceae, which no longer are considered fern allies). The checklist in this volume notes 590 taxa. Some species have been added, others removed, and the names of others changed as a result of progress in knowledge of fern relationships. The Kinabalu fern flora is now represented by over 4600 specimens in herbaria where we have been able to examine them and probably that many more in collections not studied. The 100 species, subspecies and varieties described and illustrated in this guide comprise about 17 percent of the Kinabalu ferns, including members of all 29 families. Generic representation is fairly good, amounting to 47 percent, i.e., 64 of the 135 known genera.

Presents an account of the variety of Chinese plants and their application to Western gardens. The author follows in the footsteps of the great Victorian plant hunters and describes some 1,000 different plants in their natural habitat.