Flora Treatises
A flora treatise (usually simply known as a Flora), requires specialist botanical knowledge to use with any effectiveness. Traditionally flora treatises are books, but some are now published on CD-ROM or websites.
It is said that the Flora Sinensis by the Polish Jesuit Michał Boym was the first book that used the name "Flora" in this meaning, a book covering the plant world of a region. However, despite its title it covered not only plants, but also some animals of the region.
A flora often contains diagnostic keys. Often these are dichotomous keys, which require the user to repeatedly examine a plant, and decide which one of two alternatives given in the flora best applies to the plant.
A compendium of world floras has been compiled by David Frodin.
Read more about this topic: Plant Species
Famous quotes containing the words flora and/or treatises:
“A man’s interest in a single bluebird is worth more than a complete but dry list of the fauna and flora of a town.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“[T]here is a Wit for Discourse, and a Wit for Writing. The Easiness and Familiarity of the first, is not to savour in the least of Study; but the Exactness of the other, is to admit of something like the Freedom of Discourse, especially in Treatises of Humanity, and what regards the Belles Lettres.”
—Richard Steele (1672–1729)