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When we study unknown flowers, it is helpful to first draw a ground plan of the flower, like an architect draws the plan of a house representing the rooms and connections between them, thus gaining an idea of the spatial arrangement of all the parts. Such a floral diagram conveys information that may help to determine the systematic position of a plant. It is also a first crude but practical approach to get to know a flower.
Since the classic work by A. W. Eichler on floral diagrams (Blüthendiagramme, 1875, 1878), the present book is the first work that approaches the topic by covering a large diversity of angiosperms, worldwide. The author, Louis P. Ronse De Craene, is a well-known researcher on comparative floral morphology, and through his own work on many families has great experience in the diverse structures of angiosperm flowers.
The most valuable aspects of the present work are that a systematic approach is used, and that many angiosperm groups for which previously there were no floral diagrams available in the literature are comparatively treated. The main text is a broad-brush description of flower diversity and evolution through many of the major angiosperm clades as they are currently recognised in the classification of the Angiosperm...