I am waiting for my copy, obviously, because of my Guruji (my PhD guide and mentor, Prof. G.S.Rawat) and my two dear friends Ishwari and Gajendra, all three authored this. I have not yet seen the content, but I believe with this trio, it must be a good book. If you dont agree with nomenclature then you can openly discuss with them and may be they will rectify if they write second edition. Thanks for reviewing. Pankaj
On Thu, Sep 28, 2017 at 4:19 PM, J.M. Garg <[email protected]> wrote: > Thanks a lot, Rawat ji, for the beautiful analysis and review. > > On 28-Sep-2017 1:33 PM, "D.S Rawat" <[email protected]> wrote: > >> Yesterday (27th Sept. 2017) I received my copy of ‘*Plants of Kedarnath >> Wildlife Sanctuary, Western Himalaya: A Field Guide*”. >> >> As claimed it is a good field guide for the person interested in >> flowering plants of West Himalayan hills. The authors of this document are >> well known workers of angiosperm taxonomy who have done extensive >> explorations in this part of the Himalaya. Expertise of the authors is >> visible in this document where they have described and illustrated about >> 575 species of montane, sub-alpine and alpine habitats. The alpine flora of >> the Himalaya, particularly of the Uttarakhand is difficult as these plants >> are less accessible and thus not well studied, collected or photographed. >> Even in the Oleg Polunin and Adam Stainton’s “Flowers of the Himalaya”, one >> of the most important pictorial document for high elevation flora, >> Uttarakhand was not well represented which becomes apparent by their >> remark- “It must be confessed that both authors have traveled much less in >> the hills of Uttar Pradesh than elsewhere in the Himalaya.” and “However, >> it remains true that if one wishes to see either the East or West Himalayan >> flora at its best one should not choose to visit this central portion”. I >> wonder, the authors of this field guide either took it as a challenge or >> were inspired by the ‘Flowers of the Himalaya’. The fact considered as >> weakness by Polunin and Stainton can be taken as strength of the flora of >> Uttarakhand where both eastern Himalayan and western Himalayan elements >> intermingle and represented making it rich, though with less endemism. >> >> >> What attracts me more is the price of this document which is very >> affordable to even a research student (it costs 695 India Rupees including >> postage) and I hope it will soon become popular for this reason alone. >> >> >> Printing quality has improved in India significantly and this document >> with this much low price is one example. However, one must not forget that >> conditions in high hills are not always very friendly for photographing the >> plants, particularly in rainy season, the main flowering season. It must >> have taken years of repeated efforts to develop this remarkable collection >> of large number of species. Since it is a field guide (and not a >> traditional flora) it lacks keys but the authors have an alternative to it >> in the form of a short cut to reach to a species by classifying plants >> based on flower colours and providing thumbnail and page number of each >> species in this classification. >> >> >> The nomenclatural part and identifications are appropriate though I >> disagree/ sceptical (I wish I prove wrong!) with (very) few identities. >> Though, these do not undermine the quality and usefulness of this document. >> >> >> In my opinion this book deserves place in institutional libraries, and >> more so in the personal libraries of the naturalists interested in the >> floral wealth of the Himalaya. It makes the difficult job of identification >> easier with images and description, after all “*a picture is worth a >> thousand words*”. >> >> >> DSRawat Pantnagar >> ------------------------------------------------------------ >> ------------------------------------------------ >> Dr D.S. Rawat >> Department of Biological Sciences, G.B. Pant University of Agriculture & >> Technology Pantnagar-263 145 Uttarakhand, INDIA >> *eflorapantnagar* <https://sites.google.com/site/eflorapantnagar/home> >> displaying wild flora of Pantnagar >> >> -- >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >> "efloraofindia" group. >> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an >> email to [email protected]. >> To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. >> Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/indiantreepix. >> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. >> > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "ITPmods" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/itpmods. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. > -- ****************************************************** **************************************************************** *Pankaj Kumar*, Ph.D. *IUCN-SSC Orchid Specialist Group Asia* *Office*: Conservation Officer Orchid Conservation Section Flora Conservation Department Kadoorie Farm and Botanic Garden (KFBG) Corporation Lam Kam Road, Tai Po, New Territories, Hong Kong. *Residence*: House no. 39, 2nd Floor, Shui Wo Tsuen Lam Tsuen, Tai Po, New Territories, Hong Kong. *email*: [email protected]; [email protected] *Phone*: +852 2483 7128 (office - 8:30am to 5:00pm); +852 9436 6251 (mobile); *Fax*: +852 2483 7194 -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "efloraofindia" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send an email to [email protected]. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/indiantreepix. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
