Popular books on fossil plants are relatively few and far between. This offering from the Natural History Museum is welcome being both well illustrated and authoritative. The book is arranged into eight chapters following a time line in general but also incorporating other themes. We start ‘in the beginning’ with a brief review of life in the Precambrian and into the early Palaeozoic with the spread of life onto land. This features the Rhynie Chert, which also starts the second chapter on the Devonian. In some respects this account is an opportunity missed as no reconstruction of the hot spring setting nor community is given and highlights a weak point in referencing. A link to the University of Aberdeen Rhynie website would have been a good idea. The rise of the seed plants and first trees are also covered.
Chapter 3 is on forests and here we lose some of the time element. There are many interesting stories and anecdotes but a reader has little chance in following up the stories as referencing is only to a few textbooks. Aspects of plant preservation are dealt with here but I would like to have seen some illustrations. There is little mention of the significance of charcoal, and fire receives scant attention. Chapter 4 is on coal, which deals mainly with Carboniferous peat-forming plants. There is little discussion here of the evolution of peat-forming vegetation which is a pity considering coals are found worldwide in all periods from the Devonian.
Chapter 5 is on measuring the past. This covers aspects such as plants as thermometers and proxies for CO2 but illustrations such as of the cuticle with stomata could have been larger, clearer and annotated. Chapter 6 is on plant life through the ages. This looks at changing vegetation through time and considers evolution and extinction. A reconstruction of Gondwana is given but the changing pattern of the continents and biome development could have been given more prominence.
Chapter 7 on plants and animals deals with both plant–arthropod and plant–vertebrate interactions. Whilst interesting, it could have been improved with some good line drawings and a better sense of the evolution of interactions. The final chapter is on the rise of the flowering plants. I am sure that angiosperm palaeobotanists would like to see more detail and illustrations and to some extent I have some sympathy.
Overall the strength of the book is that it is well written and not expensive, but better illustrations could have been used in many places and the lack of websites and detailed references makes its use more limited. Despite this I think that all interested in the evolution of life should have a copy.
