Marjorie Blamey is the doyenne of European botanical artists, the best known internationally and the most successful: her earlier books have sold over a million copies. Before devoting herself to botanical illustration in middle age, Mrs Blamey had in turns been a professional actress, photographer, wartime ambulance driver, and for 20 years a farmer's wife. She and her co-worker husband, Philip, live in St Germans, Cornwall. Richard Fitter lives in Chinnor, Oxfordshire and is the most experienced writer of field guides in Britain. He combines an encyclopaedic knowledge of British natural history with absolute clarity and precision in description and, like Marjorie Blamey, a level of energy rare in people half their age - both are in their 80s, yet constantly working on new projects. Alastair Fitter is a mere 52, Richard's second son and Professor of Biology at the University of York. Already the author of earlier guides with his father and with Marjorie Blamey, here he has contributed all the maps.

The wild flowers; aquatic plants with all leaves submerged; trees and tall shrubs; grasses, sedges and rushes; ferns, horsetails and clubmosses; spcialities of the Isles of Scilly and West Cornwall; Irish specialities; extinct British and Irish plants.