A Flora of Waterton Lakes National Park

Lore Hoar is an information consultant living in Calgary.

Dr. Job Kuijt is a well-known botanist who has lectured widely, in both North America and Europe. He has taught at the University of British Columbia, the Justus-Liebig Universitaet (West Germany) and, since 1968, at the University of Lethbridge in Alberta. Kuijt is the author of The Biology of Parasitic Flowering Plants (1969), and Common Coulee Plants of Southern Alberta (University of Lethbridge Production Services, 1972). He has also contributed numerous articles to major botanical journals of North America and Europe.

A Flora of Waterton Lakes National Park providesan up-to-date, fully keyed, and illustrated manual of all plants reported for Waterton Lakes National Park. This is one of Alberta’s richest botanical areas: over 55 percent of all Alberta species are represented in the park. Most of the rarest plants of the province are found in this region.

The material is arranged in alphabetical order, initially at the family level and, within each family, at the level of the genus and finally at that of the species. Done to make the contents more accessible to the informed naturalist, allowing easy and accurate identification of all plants, this represents a break from the more usual phylogenetical framework. The technical terminology has been kept to a minimum, with the usual terms replaced by everyday equivalents. Also, every species desenibed is provided with at least a simple line draw-ing. These illustrations were drawn by the author.

The professional botanist and informed naturalist will find this to be a scholarly and accurate publication. The items are well laid out and clearly marked, and the drawings emphasize the main characteristic on habit of each plant. However, the novice naturalist will not find this an easy book to use. Although there are 156 pages of illustrations, only a few are colour photos and the drawings are not particularly helpful for field identification. Only when one is fairly certain of the plant’s identification can one safely try to locate it in this prestigious volume for final confirmation. The index lists common and familiar names, as well as the technical ones. It and the glossary provide some aid for the beginning botanist. However, this Flora is not suitable for the novice, who still needs a field guide arranged by colour of blossom.