Orchids of Samoa

This is the latest in the series of Pacific orchid studies from the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and follows on from "Orchids of Vanuatu" (Lewis & Cribb 1989) and "Orchids of the Solomon Islands and Bougainville" (Lewis & Cribb 1991). Each has a similar format and the orchid taxonomist Phillip Cribb of Kew as one of the authors. As in these works, "Orchids of Samoa" contains many very useful line drawings, often with dissected flower parts displayed, contributed by Sue Wickison, Susanna Stuart-Smith, and Mair Swann. In addition, there is a block of 18 colour plates with photographs of 81 species and these give a very good idea of the great range of form amongst Samoan orchids. There does not seem to be an acknowledgement for these but they were obviously taken by a person or per- sons very familiar with Samoan orchids in the wild, such as the second author W. Arthur Whistler who has studied the flora of Samoa and neighbouring countries for many years. Regrettably there is no index for these plates and the species illustrated are not referred to in the text under their respective headings.