Systematic Botany (2008), 33(1): p. 218 © Copyright 2008 by the American Society of Plant Taxonomists Book Review Monocots: Comparative Biology and Evolution (Excluding Poales) by J. T. Except for a few dealing with fossils, floral anatomy, and conservation, all Columbus, E. A. Friar, J. M. Porter, L. M. Prince, and M. G. Simpson papers present the latest phylogenetic analyses of their respective groups. (eds.). 2006. 735 pp. ISSN 0065-6275. $99.95 (hbk). Rancho Santa Ana This book is not, by any means, of a “coffee table” persuasion; it fea- Botanic Garden, 1500 North College Avenue, Claremont, CA 91711-3157 tures little color and absolutely no fluff. The papers, although grouped ([email protected]; mailto:[email protected]). together into the above sections, are self-contained and in American Jour- nal of Botany style, as if fifty independent efforts were bound together into This book, published as Volume 22 of Aliso, contains papers presented one volume. (And they were!) Each paper, then, can be extracted and at the Third International Conference on the Comparative Biology of the utilized perfectly well on its own, and cited within the pages of Aliso. Monocotyledons (“Monocots III”) during the spring of 2003. As such, the A companion volume, based on the concurrently held Fourth Interna- volume includes fifty original, peer-reviewed papers by the acknowl- tional Symposium on Grass Systematics and Evolution (“Grasses IV”), edged experts in this botanical realm. will soon be published (as Volume 23 of Aliso). I hope that its editors The book is divided into twelve main sections: Overall Phylogeny, “copy” the current one, because this is exactly how symposium proceed- Basal Monocots, Morphology, Floral Evolution and Development, Pollen ings should be presented. Evolution, Aquatic Monocots, Arecales, Asparagales, Commelinales, Dios- coreales, Liliales, and Zingiberales. Most sections contain three paperson –L. J. Davenport, Department of Biology, Samford University, Birming- that particular topic, although Liliales has six and Dioscoreales only one. ham, Alabama 35229 U.S.A. Copyright (c) American Society for Plant Taxonomists. All rights reserved. Delivered by Ingenta to IP: 192.168.39.210 on: Tue, 28 Sep 2021 17:12:29 218.