Review

This book was composed after a manuscript left by W. Troll of his work Die Infloreszenzen II, part III, chapter 5, Fischer, Jena, 1969. Part I was published in 1964, part II in 1969. Weberling elaborated and updated this manuscript, describing examples of monotelic families, in the style of W. Troll. Together the three books – all wrapped in orange covers – represent a standard work consisting of more than 1700 pages and 1436 figures. The figures are combinations of photographs of living plants, explanatory drawings, and schemes. The drawings especially show good old handwork. Because 20-25 years after the first two volumes this third book will tend to lead its own life, Weberling has included a recapitulation of the principles of polytelic and monotelic inflorescences. There is also a welcome glossary, established in cooperation with D. Müller-Doblies, in which as a surprise the English translations of the terms are also given. Remarkably, the definitions are not in every case identical to those in the glossary of Weberling’s book Morphology of the flowers and inflorescences.