Hold on to your gardening hats, my friends, because come late February, Princeton University Press is going to be publishing Dr. Ross Bayton’s The Gardener’s Botanical: An Encyclopedia of Latin Plant Names.
Being called “the definitive guide to botanical Latin,” this lavishly illustrated, large-format work is much more than a standard reference guide. Containing more than 5,000 plant names, “listed with a pronunciation guide, definition, example plant, and, where appropriate, etymology,” as well as an index of over 2,000 common ones cross-referenced to their binomials, this is a veritable key to unlocking the secrets contained within the taxonomic names of plants.
As artfully arranged as a well-planned garden, this new book looks to be both a pleasure to read as well as a treasure trove of botanical knowledge that would be well-laced on the shelf of all those with an interest in the Kingdom Plantae.
