This is an account of the pteridophytes of New Zealand and nearby islands (e.g., Stewart, Kermadec, and Chatham), with introduction, brief descriptions, keys to larger genera, statements of distribution and habitat, and notes about diagnostic features and variation. Many helpful black and white photographs and line drawings complement the 216 excellent color photographs (36 full-page plates, 6 photos per page) and illustrate all 193 native species and subspecies, as well as 22 naturalized species. A glossary, index, and map of important fern localities complete the book.

The New Zealand pteridoflora is noteworthy for its highly endemic nature: two monotypic genera. Anarthropteris and Loxsoma, and nearly half of the species occur nowhere else. Other species range to Australia and New Caledonia, or are more widespread in southeast Asia. A few species, as Grammitis poeppigiana, are circumantarctic. Some traditional genera are recognized in their broadest sense, e.g., Schizaea, Lycopodium, Hymenophyllum, Trichomanes, and Cyathea, while others are split into segregate genera, as Thelypteris and Gleichenia.

There remain unresolved taxonomic problems in the New Zealand fern flora, as indicated by several unnamed taxa in Blechnum, the second largest genus

with 18 spp. (exceeded only by Hymenophyllum with 21 spp.), Pellaea, and Christella. Brownsey has previously revised other complex genera in the flora, including Asplenium and Hypolepis, and references to these works are cited.

I enthusiastically recommend this book both to professionals and layfolk interested in having the most modern and informative guide the identification of New Zealand ferns and allies.—

Alan R. Smith, University Herbarium, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720.