Plants from more than 1,200 distinct groups are described -- from oaks to violets and water lilies to grasses -- and are presented in evolutionary order, from the most primitive to the most advanced. Each plant listing includes:
- Name: genus, species and common names, date of discovery, and range.
- Description: detailed and concise in the scientific style.
- Key Recognition Features.
- Ecology and Geography.
- Comment: cultivation needs plus notes about unusual hybrids or developments in the genus.

As a pair, the two volumes are an all-inclusive source of information and photographs of more than 2,000 genera of temperate plants. Thorough introductory text encompasses numerous themes in botany, from the history of plant development to current DNA studies that are revolutionizing plant classification. Each volume includes a detailed index and bibliography. The Botanical Garden I and II are exciting additions to a gardening bookshelf. They are visually rich and highly accurate references that will remain interesting, useful and current for many years. Offering a discerning insight into the relationship between garden plants and their natural environments and accuracy that is unequalled outside scientific circles, this duo are truly the modern heirs to a long history of botanical references. There are simply no other works of this kind available today.

About Volume I, Trees and Shrubs

Featuring 510 genera of temperate woody garden plants with full details of how they are related, their origins and uses, Volume I covers trees, shrubs and climbers. From plants dating to prehistory -- tree ferns, gingkoes and some conifers - to those more recently evolved, this volume includes early- flowering plants (magnolia and its family), catkin-bearing trees, fruit and nut trees, maples, the cordyline, palm and bamboo species, and many more advanced trees and shrubs.