Betty and Don Wood

A handy sized book, of sturdy construction and easy to fit in the back pack. It uses a very simple system of sorting plants by flower colour – a boon for the amateur botanist – and common names as well as botanical names are used throughout, easing the way for those less versed in botanical nomenclature. The photographs are of uniformly excellent quality, and there are plenty of them.

However, I find it difficult to work out exactly for whom this book is written. Many photographs illustrate species so similar that I would not expect an amateur to be able to distinguish between them, certainly not on the basis of photographs alone, and yet there is no botanical key in this book, which is what the more skilled enthusiast or the professional would require.

That said, if you are sufficiently organised, and have the patience to wait until the plant you are interested in comes into bloom, so that you may check out the flower colour and match it up to a photograph, then this book may serve you well.

Its history and regeneration

John F Noble

Hornsby Shire Council, pb, $12

This book tells the story of the author’s work over many years to bring a very degraded area to what it is today - I quote from Steven Pringle’s (Mayor of Hornsby Shire Council) Foreword: "Observatory Park once was lacking in biodiversity and had little but grass and trees. Through John’s persistence and patience it now has an array of native species, provides valuable habitat and provides a natural environment amenity to the area."

In the Introduction, it is noted that within Observatory Park the "... understorey was mown for decades until ten years ago when regeneration of native plants in the central part was successfully encouraged. The Park is a significant remnant of the original Blue Gum High Forest of which only 0.9% remains ... [this] forest has recently been declared an endangered ecological community ..."

The book includes species lists, various letters from well-known people who gave assistance, coloured and black-and-white photographs, and botanical drawings. It could be very useful for those with similar projects in mind.