The Cambridge Illustrated Glossary of Botanical Terms

by Clive King, Michael Hickey

This beautifully illustrated glossary comprises over 2400 terms commonly used to describe vascular plants. The majority are structural terms referring to parts of plants visible with the naked eye or with a x10 hand lens, but some elementary microscopical and physiological terms are also included, as appropriate. Each term is defined accurately and concisely, and whenever possible, cross referenced to clearly labelled line drawings made mainly from living material. The illustrations are presented together in a section comprising 127 large format pages, within which they are grouped according to specific features, such as leaf shape or flower structure, so allowing comparison of different forms at a glance. The illustrations therefore provide a unique compilation of information that can be referred to independently of the definitions. This makes the glossary a particularly versatile reference work for all those needing a guide to botanical terminology and plant structure.

Unknown Binding

First published August 29, 2013

About the author

David Clive King was born in Richmond, Surrey in 1924. In 1926 he moved with his parents to Oliver's Farm, Ash, Kent, on the North Downs, alongside which was an abandoned chalk-pit. His early education was at a private infant school where one of the teachers, Miss Brodie, claimed to have taught Christopher Robin Milne, and introduced Clive to stories about Stone Age people. Thereafter he went to King's School, Rochester, Downing College, Cambridge, and the School of Oriental and African Studies, London.

From 1943 to 1947 he served in the Royal Navy, voyaging to Iceland, twice to the Russian Arctic, to India, Sri Lanka, Australia, East Indies, Malaysia and Japan, where he observed the ruins of Hiroshima within months of its destruction. Civilian postings as an officer of the British Council took him to Amsterdam, Belfast, Aleppo, Damascus (styled as Visiting Professor to the University), Beirut, Dhaka and Madras, and gave opportunities for independent travel between these places and England. Several of these exotic places provided material for his nineteen children's stories, but his best-known book STIG OF THE DUMP he wrote in an educational job at Rye, East Sussex. The BBC broadcast a new television adaptation in early 2002.

Married, divorced and married again, Clive King has three children, seven grandchildren and a great-grandchild.