The completion of the European Garden Flora

摘要

During the latter part of 1999, the text of the final volume (volume VI) of The European Garden Flora was completed and sent off to Cambridge University Press for publication in Autumn 2000. This signalled the end (proof-correcting, aside) of a process that began in 1976, and it seems worthwhile to mark the completion of almost a quarter of a century's work. The early ideas for the project crystallised in 1976 when Dr S. Max Walters, then Director of Cambridge University Botanic Garden, was participating in a Scientific Review of the work of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, where I was then Assistant Keeper. During discussions connected with the review and continuing afterwards, it became clear that we had both recognised the need for a book that would enable people to identify garden plants accurately and scientifically, and that both of us had some more concrete ideas as to what might be possible. Tile proposal that writing such a Flora should be considered was written into tile report of the Scientific Review Group, with tile instruction that RBG Edinburgh should 'take the lead' in assessing the feasibility of the project, and, if it were feasible, in producing it. This was accepted by the management of RBGE, and the commitment has been honoured without demur over the whole quarter century - a real tribute to the continuing concern of the Garden and its management for cultivated plant taxonomy.