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Perhaps once in every few decades a new defnitive volume appears on any particular plant or animal group. The Moss Flora of Britain and ireland by a lecturer in the School of Plant Biology at the University college of north Wales, Bangor, is such a volume. It is over fifty years since the last comprehensive book on British mosses was published, and during that time knowledge of the status of the British moss flora and views on moss taxonomy have changed greatly. Any new treatise, to be of maximum value, must fulfil the following criteria. It must take account of modern views on taxonomy and nomenclature. It should be a genuine revision in terms of species descriptions and illustrations and not rely on reproducing data and figures from previous similar publications. It must be up to date and accurate on the ecological status of the various recognized taxa. Finally, and perhaps most important, the keys to identification must work. On all these counts Dr Smith's book scores most impressively. It represents a massive revision and up-dating of what was previously available and the descriptions of taxa, accompanied by many totally new drawings, are very detailed. And the keys do work. The book is generally well produced and appears to be remarkably free of errors.' British Book News 'This book is likely to remain the standard work on british mosses for many years to come, and we should all be grateful to Dr Smith and his collaborators for the taxonomic skill and the enormous amount of laborious work it has demanded. To all concerned with the study and conservation of british vegetation it will be invaluable, and ecologists will particularly appreciate M. O. Hill's excellent contribution, the first satisfactory account of the British sphagna since Braithwaite's (1880) which has of course been long out of date.' P. W. Richards, Journal of Ecology '... a welcome revision of the tried and trusted Flora first published in 1978.' Plant Talk

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