Books you may like to hear about

[mark smyth]

Martin I speak no German so dont know what the content says

[Martin Baxendale]

Martin I speak no German so dont know what the content says

My German isn't terribly good, but even to me the written content seems quite basic. Not a lot of info, just various variations on what a lovely snowdrop and really quite minimal information. Nice photos (which I imagine is the main point of the book) but it looks like mostly individual flowers in close up. As with most snowdrop books, including the Bible, I think it would be good if there were more photos showing clumps, so you can see what they look like as a clumped-up garden plant, which can also help a lot with identification. But then you'd need large full-page photos of very high quality to see both individual flowers in detail and the overall clump.

[Martin Baxendale]

Or perhaps a full-page clump photo and an insert showing a flower in close-up. But you'd still need a full page per photo. My ideally illustrated snowdrop book would be a very expensive thing to produce. 

[johnw]

Martin - Wouldn't it be great if the next version of the bible had an optional photo cd with photos of all including the foliage details, clumps and close-ups. All with a search mechanism, of course.

I'd also like to see a second index listing cultivars and selections A-Z without the species names; the present index is a bit cumbersome when you're in a rush.

How big will it be?

johnw  

[Brian Ellis]

Or perhaps a full-page clump photo and an insert showing a flower in close-up. But you'd still need a full page per photo. My ideally illustrated snowdrop book would be a very expensive thing to produce. 

I bet we all would buy it though!

[FrazerHenderson]

As the book spine is only seen on our library shelves we tend to forget about the front cover - however some are really worth due consideration. I was pleasantly surprised recently by the number of books with gentians on the cover.

[David Nicholson]

I have the Berry book. Published in 1951 but very good indeed for a Gentiana beginner like me.

[Giles]

Does anyone know of a book or journal article that reviews the Genus Viola?
Thankyou,
Giles

[David Nicholson]

Does anyone know of a book or journal article that reviews the Genus Viola?
Thankyou,
Giles

Giles, GerdK might be the man to ask.

[Lvandelft]

Does anyone know of a book or journal article that reviews the Genus Viola?
Thankyou,
Giles

Violets, Doretta Klaber. 1976  (Violets of the United States)  It's a lovely book with many colored drawings of Viola.

[Giles]

Thankyou both.
I have pm'd Gerd, and will track down the book 

[arisaema]

There's a small and inexpensive book in Japanese called "Wild Violets of Japan", don't have a clue about the text, but it has good pictures and names in Latin. ISBN 4635070069

[Gerdk]

Besides the books already mentioned there are

The Violets of Japan - bei Eisuke Hama (1987) - in Japanese but superb illustrated
and names in Latin

Pansies, Violas and Violettas - by Rodney Fuller (1990) - dealing with breeding, cultivation, cultivars and also with a short treatise of the species.

From Fritz Köhlein (1999) is Viola, Veilchen, Stiefmütterchen, Hornveilchen - nice
little book for beginners but in German.

For European species you have to dip into the Viola-treatment in ' Flora Europaea '
- where sections of the genus are listed.

If you are interested in relationship of violets worldwide I recommend
Phylogenetic relationships and infrageneric groups in Viola - dissertation by Harvey
E. Ballard jr. from 1996 - 344 pp. - partly not at the current status but a good summing up of the genus.

I hope this will help a little bit.

Gerd

[David Nicholson]

I hear that Giles' Japanese is a joy to hear

[Giles]

Thankyou, all.
I post these links, and you will see why I'm interested.
Amazon.jp has an English version of their site, which makes getting Japanese books quite easy.
(David, I only ever look at the pictures)
http://homepage3.nifty.com/plantsandjapan/page116.html
http://alm-alpines.com/gallery_viola.htm