Whitelock is the doyen of cycad collectors, having been collecting cycads and information on them since before most of us knew what a cycad was.  His travels took him to the far corners of the earth to hunt cycads.  Far more than anyone else, he can write with authority about cycads in natural habitat.

Comprehensive the book certainly is.  The first 40 pages contain short but adequate chapters on past and present distribution, classification and names, morphology and reproduction, cultivation, propagation, conservation, and cycads in human activities.  These lack literature references but contain the basic information in an admirably concise form.  Many readers will be pleased with the section, Cycads for specific purposes (pages 345-354), containing lists of species under headings such as cycads with subterranean stems, cycads with very long leaves, cycads that are deciduous, temperate to warm temperate cycads, cycads with rapid growth rates, and cycads that tolerate cold and frost, salt, or wind.  There is also a bibliography to mostly taxonomic publications, mainly those in which new genera and species were originally described.

The main part of the book comprises the treatment of genera and species.  These are all in alphabetical order, a minor irritant because similar species are not grouped together for comparison, but perhaps inevitable given our still poor understanding of the relationships between different genera and between different species.  For every genus and species there is an indirect reference to the place of original publication, one of the most comprehensive descriptions I have ever seen - these really enable one to visualise the plants, something about habitat and geographical distribution, miscellaneous notes on history and similar species, behaviour in cultivation, and conservation status.  For almost every species there are several photographs, usually taken in habitat, and mostly of excellent quality.

There are a few things which I don't like.  There are no distribution maps, and many of the geographical names mentioned in the text would be unfamiliar to the average reader.  Then the photographs are not opposite the relevant text, but grouped together in two groups.  I suppose that to place them with the text would have meant printing the whole book in colour and added materially to the price, but still I feel that it would have been worth the higher selling price, and that the layout lacks imagination.  I am also disappointed that there are not photographs of leaf detail as well as male and female cones for all species - I suspect that the publisher is to blame because I cannot imagine that the author would not have had such photographs.  The net result is a wonderful source of information if one starts off with a name, but it won't be easy to identify an unknown cycad from this book.  This book is the result of painstaking work over a lifetime; in the field, the garden, and the library, and it shows.

shortened from Encephalartos book review by: Dr. Piet Vorster

The Cycad Society has obtained a stock at a discount and we are able to provide it to members at a cost of R40.00, inclusive of postage to South African addresses, and is available from the secretary/treasurer.

The book is available in both Afrikaans and English.  It has general cycad information, including the following:

• General cycad morphology (leaves, stem, comes, seeds)
• Reproduction (sexual reproduction, vegetative reproduction, including topics such as wet and dry pollination, seed germination, suckers and leaf bases.
• General info regarding the growing of cycads (light, soil, water, pH, transplanting)
• Diverse aspects of cycads ( maturity, age determination, toxicity)
• Identification and discussion of the South African species.
• Literature list.

The book is currently only available in Afrikaans, but Prof. Nat Grobbelaar is apparently translating the book into English.  The book is well worth the money and I believe that it completes the picture of the South African cycads, in combination with the books by Douglas Goode and Cynthia Giddy.

Readership
Researchers in the field of plant systematists, evolution and conservation; ornamental horticulture.

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