Review

This book contains a wealth of information on Monocotyledons. The papers are based on presentations at the Second International Conference on Comparative Biology of the Monocotyledons, Monocots II, held in Sydney, Australia in 1998, but many have been updated or extended to take into account new information. The book is divided into three main sections: General Comparative Biology of the Monocots (33 papers), Systematics of the Lilioides (18 papers), and Systematics of the Commelinoids (29 papers). General Comparative Biology of the Monocots covers the fields: Higher level systematics and new classifications; Biogeography and Fossils; Development and Organisation; Chemotaxonomy and Cytology; Anatomy and Embryology; and Reproductive biology. Systematics of the Lilioides contains accounts on Asparagales, Liliales, Orchidaceae, Dioscoreales, and Pandales. Systematics of the Commelinoids gives papers on Arecales (Palms), Commelinales, Poales (Bromeliaceae, Eriocaulaceae, Cyperaceae, Restoniaceae), and Zingiberales. As may be clear from the various fields covered in General Comparative Biology a very wide range of data sets is discussed. In the sections on Systematics most papers discuss systematics and phylogeny using phylogenies based on DNA sequences, macromorphological and anatomical characters.