This much-needed book finally makes sense of a fascinating group of cormous plants. That this group of plants was so confused is nicely explained in a good historical introduction. The last revision of this group was almost 100 years ago!

The African continent is large-covering an immense area. This book covers the 83 Gladiolus species found in sub-Saharan Africa down to, but not including, the South African species. Nineteen new Gladiolus species are described for the first time.

Peter Goldblatt has studied African bulbs extensively in the Iridaceae and has many great books to his credit, including The Genus Watsonia (1989) and The Moraeas of Southern Africa (1986). Gladiolus in Tropical Africa is a continuation of the detailed study of plants in this diverse plant family.

After a fascinating fourteen pages of historical information the book continues with 24 pages of morphology, 12 pages of relationships, phylogeny and classification, 5 pages on development of garden hybrids, 4 pages on the phytogeographical data on the plants, and an II page key to the species. The line drawings by John C. Manning are excellent. Most species are illustrated by a line drawing.

The 41 color photos are good to excellent and many are of plants in habitat. A major fault of the book is that the 16 pages of color photos have no page numbers, are not keyed to the text, and are not included in the index so as to quickly find the photo of a certain species.

Each species listed includes synonymy, eponymy, distribution map, description (including chromosome number if known), diagnosis & relationships, variations, history and selected specimens.

Some of the Gladiolus species included in this book are very widespread on the African continent yet are not even known in cultivation. Why? The spectacular flowered G. dalenii is seldom seen in cultivation but is an extremely reliable and colorful bloomer-and is now shown to have many color forms.

The author's revision of the genus into only two subgenera (Ophiolyza and Gladiolus) is reasonable and workable.

One species, G. crassifolius, flowers twice a year. This could be used to hybridize future cultivars with a longer flowering season. Another species, G. decoratus, has twice had its chromosome number determined to be triploid-a most unusual situation. Some species would be wonderful to try in cultivation: G. erectiflorus (all color forms), G. verdickii (all color forms), G. sericeovillosus subsp. calvatus, G. watsonioides, G. longispathaceus, G. sudanicus....

The fact that Gladiolus dalenii has over 30 synonyms is one indication that the author put an incredible amount of work over a long time into this book. Gladiolus of Tropical Africa is an absolute must for all who study, grow, hybridize or enjoy this fabulous group of flowering plants.

Michael Vassar