Flora of Great Britain and Ireland: special offer for BSBI members

We were delighted to receive this note from Philip Oswald:

"The last of the five volumes of Peter Sell’s and his long-term colleague Gina Murrell’s Flora of Great Britain and Ireland was published by Cambridge University Press on 12 April this year, the culmination of over 30 years of dedicated labour based on the Cambridge University Herbarium (CGE), where Peter was employed from 1944 till 1997 and continued to work after his retirement; when he died in 2013 a small team of his friends undertook to see the last two volumes through the press.

"This definitive Flora provides detailed accounts of the native species, naturalised species, frequent garden escapes and casuals found in Britain and Ireland, including some newly described ones. 

Gina Murrell delivers her address at this year's
event celebrating the publication of the
final volume of Sell & Murrell's Flora.
Image: P. H. Oswald

"Full keys and descriptions enable the user to name all plants occurring in the wild and some ornamental trees and shrubs. For the first time, accounts of all the large apomictic genera are included. 

"Each species entry begins with the accepted Latin name, synonyms and English name. A detailed description follows, with the flowering period and chromosome number. Separate descriptions are provided for infraspecific taxa and many hybrids. 

"The status, ecology and distribution (including worldwide distribution) of the taxa are also given. 

Martin (son of Max) Walters &
BSBI Membership Secretary Gwynn
Ellis, who was the indexer of all five
volumes of  'Sell & Murrell',
 at the celebratory event,
Cambridge, June 2018
Image: P. H. Oswald

"Black and white line drawings illustrate an extensive glossary and illuminate the diagnostic features in several genera. 

"Volume 1 includes historical and taxonomic introductions to the whole project and a combined index of accepted names and selected synonyms of families and genera in all five volumes. 

"Katrina Halliday of Cambridge University Press and Lauren Gardiner of the Cambridge University Herbarium organised a celebration of the publication of the final volume of the Flora of Great Britain and Ireland on 28 June 2018, at which Gina thanked all those responsible and outlined the history of the project. 

"The text of her address has been added to the tributes to Peter delivered at the event to celebrate his life on 18 July 2014, which are on the BSBI website's Obituaries page.

"With the approval of Cambridge University Press, Gina Murrell and Peter Sell’s son Tim Sell, Peter’s fascinating discussion of variation on pages xxxiv–liii of Volume 1, with many examples from his unique first-hand experience over many years, is available as a downloadable pdf from the BSBI website: click on Variation in Sell & Murrell’s Flora. 

Gina Murrell and Peter Sell in
the Herbarium, Cambridge, 2011
Image: P. H. Oswald

"Publication dates are as follows: Volume 1 – 12 April 2018; Volume 2 – 18 December 2014; Volume 3 – 12 February 2009; Volume 4 – 6 April 2006; Volume 5 – 10 April 1997.

"BSBI Members can receive 20% off all five volumes of Sell & Murrell’s Flora. When ordering go to www.cambridge.org/flora and enter FLORA at the checkout".

Many thanks to Philip for this note and for arranging the 20% discount for BSBI members.