Review

The fifth and final volume of A.C. Smith’s ‘Flora Vitiensis Nova’ was issued in June 1991, thirteen years after the appearance of the first volume and nearly 120 years after Berthold Seemann’s ‘Flora Vitiensis’. The present volume contains the long awaited treatment of the Orchidaceae (by P.J. Kores) along with the following Dicot families (in alphabetical order): Acanthaceae, Asteraceae (with G.D. Carr), Bignoniaceae, Boraginaceae, Buddlejaceae, Campanulaceae, Convolvulaceae, Cuscutaceae, Gesneriaceae, Goodeniaceae, Lamiaceae (with S.P. Darwin), Menyanthaceae, Plantaginaceae, Scrophulariaceae, Solanaceae, and Verbenaceae (with S.P. Darwin). The volume furthermore contains addenda and corrigenda to the previous four volumes and an index to the whole series. The completion of this Flora is of major significance to students of Pacific Botany, who have earlier been greatly served by the ‘Manual of the flowering plants of Hawaii’ by Wagner et al. (1990) An overview of the completed Flora Vitiensis is now due. The flora follows Takhtajan’s system. Treatment of genera and species within each family follows the sequence in which they appear in the keys. The genus descriptions are ample but species descriptions are concise. Much attention is given to the typification, taxonomic problems, distribution (often also outside Fiji) and uses. No notes are added on ecology. Illustrations consist of photographs (mostly of herbarium specimens), some in colour (of living plants). Only some of the Orchidaceae are also illustrated by line drawings.