One of the world's leading evolutionary biologists here reexamines the evolutionary history of flowering plants. This important book is the first to interpret the phylogeny of flowering plants in the light of modern knowledge about genetics, developmental biology, and ecology.

Mr. Stebbins is concerned with the evolution of genera, families, and other higher taxa; his analysis is based upon a unified theory that identifies the same fundamental processes at work in the origin of both species and the broader taxonomic categories. He shows, however, that subspecific evolution...