The Illustrated Rhododendron: Their Classification Portrayed Through the Artwork of Curtis's Botanical Magazine

William Curtis's venerable Botanical Magazine, founded in 1787, is one of the oldest regular publications with color illustrations still in existence. In The Illustrated Rhododendron, Pat Halliday lays out the complicated classification of the genus according to the system approved by the Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh, taking as her inspiration the finely detailed drawings that appeared in the Botanical Magazine over the last two centuries. Though of course not all of the 850 or so species native to the Northern Hemisphere are pictured or discussed, every subgenus, section, and series is represented, the species chosen for inclusion based on the quality and condition of the illustration available, the importance of the species historically, the popularity of the species, and Halliday's personal interest in it. "This is primarily a book of 'pretty pictures,'" Halliday writes, but that is a modest appraisal. Halliday's accounts of the selected species' discovery and cultivation, as well as her meticulous descriptions of the plants, range, and habitats, will captivate rhododendron enthusiasts. And on the contrary, the illustrations were given short shrift in the book's production--the paper is simply too transparent to support dense text on one side and a delicate illustration on the other. Ultimately, this is a book on the classification of the Rhododendron genus, with some very pretty pictures thrown in. --Liana Fredley