Review

In this volume the author concentrates on the comparative study of tropical flowers. He gives a practical approach (see Introduction, page 3) to recognize tropical flowers at three levels: a) Organization (‘Bauplan’), with emphasis on history and macroevolution (see Chapter 2); b) Construction (‘Gestalt’), i.e. architecture (see Chapter 3); and c) Mode, with emphasis on ecology and microevolution (see Chapters 4 & 5). Its scope is the understanding or biological interpretation of characters and character variation of flowers for the phylogenetic reconstruction of the angiosperms at these levels. The author claims that knowledge of the phylogenetic history and of the interactions between animals and plants may be of vital importance for the evaluation of conservation actions and that the modem threats to biodiversity urges more and better knowledge of the biology of flowers in the widest sense. In Chapters 2-7 an enormous number of facts about flowers have been brought together, most from literature but also from original sources, providing a unique insight into the (reproductive) morphology, biology and evolution of flowers, as much as possible indicating the major presumed evolutionary trends.