A Dictionary of the Flowering Plants and Ferns

TLDR

Willis's Dictionary is a renowned, comprehensive reference covering generic and family names of flowering plants and ferns, including variant spellings and inter‑generic hybrids. The eighth edition is released in paperback to broaden accessibility to professional botanists, students, and serious amateurs. Entries cover all generic names from 1753 onward and family names from 1789, include supra‑ and infra‑familial taxa, provide brief subfamily characters, and adopt Pichi‑Sermolli’s Pteridophyta classification while retaining Bentham & Hooker and Engler & Prand synopses. The paperback edition has made the dictionary available to a wider readership.

Abstract

Willis's Dictionary is a famous publication in the world of botany and horticulture. It is a comprehensive and indispensable reference to the generic and family names of flowering plants and ferns. The entries attempt to cover all published generic names from 1753 onwards and published family names from 1789, together with a number of supra- and infra-familial taxa where these have not been based on family or generic names. The generic names include many variant spellings and inter-generic hybrids. Brief characters of subfamilies are usually given. The treatment of the families and higher taxa of the Pteridophyta is based on the classification scheme proposed by Pichi-Sermolli. The synopses of the Bentham & Hooker and Engler & Prand systems are retained. This eighth edition is now published in paperback in order to make it available to a wider readership, not only of professional botanists, but also students and serious amateurs.