Principles of Angiosperm Taxonomy

Contents: 1. The Roots of Taxonomy. 2. Systematics After Darwin: Its Modern Basis. 3. The Units of Classification. 4. The Concept of Characters. 5. Taxonomic Evidence-I.
6. Taxonomic Evidence- II. 7. Taxonomic Evidence-III. 8. Field, Herbarium and Library. 9. Presentation of Data. 10. Modification of the Phenotype. 11. Variation Within Populations. 12. Populations and the Environment. 13. Evolution and the Differentiation of Species. 14. Hybridisation and Taxonomy. Conclusions. Bibliography. Index.

The present book aimed at providing advanced students with a comprehensive survey of the subject. The absence of such a work has, inconvenienced both student and teacher alike. Although the expanding horizons of the subject may have proved daunting enough, another major factor which must have deterred authors is that few other subjects are so open to serious controversy; on nearly every major topic there are opposing school of thought. Two significant developments in taxonomy have unfolded with almost unprecedented rapidity during the last two or three years, while this book has been in preparation. These are the fields known as numerical taxonomy and chemical taxonomy respectively. The literature of taxonomy is the largest in biology and extends back for over two centuries, so that our bibliography, although extensive, covers only a small fraction of the field. This book has been prepared as a text to meet the needs as required by under graduate and post graduate students of systematic botany. In writing a textbook on principles of taxonomy providing advanced students with a comprehensive survey of the subject.