Escaped ‘immigrants’

Press, 9 August 1980, Page 17

Escaped ‘immigrants’

Wild Flowers in New Zealand. By Nancy M. Adams. Reed ,1980. 43 pp. $12.95.

(Reviewed by Thelma Strongman)

Nancy Adams is already well known for her exact and _ beautiful botanical illustrations, particularly those in "New Zealand Alpine Plants” and the very useful “Fiat Book of New Zealand Trees.” In “Wild Flowers of New Zealand” the similar gentle but accurate presentation of her work is put to excellent use in a collection of exotic garden “escapees” which, m good immigrant fashion, have settled down in the New Zealand countryside and are now happily and wildly reproducing themselves. Although the choice of plants illustrated is a personal one' . and makes no claim to be exhaustive on the subject, Nancy Adams has managed to • include many, of the wayside plants which are, of course, excluded by definition in the usual manuals of New Zealan 1 • flora. Many of the drawings are of a single flower stem and attendant leaves which makes recognition a fairly simple matter. In some cases however, one is left wondering whether the entire plant in flower is not more significant than its single flower stem. Plants such as the celandine, foxglove, wallflower, and the poisonous Cape Tulip are represented, as are the Russell lupins of the Mackenzie Basin and the echium family, a member of which is well esconced on the cliffs at Sumner.

The presentation of the book is most attractive. The botanical plates and corresponding notes are printed on a smooth yellow paper, ‘ faintly reminiscent of “The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady.” A small confusion on Plate 12 is caused by errant numbering, but it detracts little over , the over-all pleasure of this book.