Plants of the Victorian High Country: A field guide for walkers [Book Review] PDF
Preview Plants of the Victorian High Country: A field guide for walkers [Book Review]
BookReviews Plants ofthe Victorian High Country: a field guide forwalkers byJohn Murphyand Bill Dowling Publisher: CSIROPublishing, Collingwood, Victoria2012.152pages,paperback, 114colourphotographs. ISBN9780643104631. RRP$29.95. Thisbookwaswritten with walkers oftheVic- torian High Countryin mind, andispresented insimpletermsthatdonotpresume aprevious botanicalknowledge.Intheintroductorypages, theauthorsbeginwithaverybriefsegmentex- plaining that plant identification is based on a binomial (twoname) systemincludingagenus andaspecies,andthatplantsareorganisedinto families. They indicate that common names can cause confusion and cite the example that theVictorian,SouthAustralianandTasmanian bluegumsarethreedifferentplantspecies.This is a useful warning to people when discussing plants; they should confirm they are speak- ing aboutthe sameplant when usingcommon names.Acommonnamemaybegiventomore than oneplant, asintheexampleprovided,but one plant may have more than one common name.Furthermore,acommonnamemaysug- gestanaffinitythatdoesnotoccur,e.g. theShe- oak, in the genus Allocasuarina, is not an oak, whichisinthegenusQuercus. It is pleasing to see that the authors have made a point ofincluding the most common High Country plants as these are most likely to be noted by a walker. Being able to place a name to these plants will, hopefully, encour- isprovidedinthepagespriortothosecontain- age a stronger desire to care for their survival ingtheplantphotographsanddescriptions. andengender adeeper interest in theworld of The photographs are arranged in sections botany. On the whole, the photographs are of containingsimilar typesofplants: herbs (other good quality, although there is the occasional than daisies), daisy herbs, low woody shrubs, slightly out offocus shot. The detail provided tallshrubsandtrees (otherthaneucalypts) and generallyissufficienttoaididentification,espe- eucalypts. The reader is instructed to deter- ciallywhencoupledwiththeeasilyunderstood minewhichofthesegroupstheirplantofinter- plant descriptions. In each instance, the zone estbelongs to, goto the keyforthatgroupand or zones in which the species can be found is follow the key to determine which plant they stated and a briefdescription ofthe leavesand are likelyto have and then compare itwith the flowersprovided. Flowering timesalso are giv- photographs and descriptions. This is fine and en.Anexplanationoftheenvironmental zones easilydone;however, itwouldhavebeen useful Vol 130 (1)2013 149 BookReviews ifpagenumberswereprovided forthesekeys. to notice,addingevenmoreenjoymenttoyour AnyonewithaninterestintheHighCountryis travelsofourmagnificentHighCountry. recommended to buythis book. It is relatively inexpensive and will allow you to easily iden- MariaGibson tifythese delightful plants and, once on a first SchoolofLifeandEnviroDnemaeknitnalUnSicvieernscietsy,, namebasiswiththesecommonplants,youwill 221BurwoodHighway, be amazed at how many more you will begin Burwood,Victoria3125 Birds ofPrey ofAustralia: a field guide byStephen Debus Publisher: CSIROPublishing Melbourne, 2 edn,2012.208pages,paperback. , ISBN9780643104365. RRP$39.95. Over the past few decades we have seen a steadysupplyofspecialistbirdbookstoanever increasingandappreciativeaudience. Theorig- inal edition ofthis book has been completely revised and updated with new sections. This book is one ofmany, and like others has both good and not so good aspects. It remains for the reader to consider these for a briefperiod then delveintothemeatofthesubjectmuchas araptordoesintoitsprey. Obviously produced for the avid enthusiast lacking access to world literature obtainable through specialist journals, the current book summarises this information into readable textwithoutthe scientificjargon, which might otherwise leave readers floundering. Also the author includeshis own and colleagues obser- vations in the work and it becomes a medium for this extensive knowledge to be spread and assimilated. The book is in two parts preceded by a very readable introductory section that captures the essence ofthe study ofthose diurnal birds known collectively as ‘birds of prey’ or ‘rap- tors’. Subjects include information describing plumages, sizes and finallywell executed illus- what these are, behaviour and breeding, reha- trations provided bythe accomplished wildlife bilitating injured or sick birds, conservation artist JeffDavies. Part 1 concludes with a sec- andtaxonomyandrangeofthegroup. Thefirst tion titled ‘Difficult species-pairs’ illustrating majorpartis the field guide containingspecies similarly plumaged birds which are often dif- information. This includes information on age ficultto separate or identifyin thewild. Italso 150 TheVictorianNaturalist
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