This is a book on aquatic plants written in accessible language, so that anyone interested in water plants can acquire useful knowledge about them. As far as possible botanical language has been used sparingly, and then only when absolutely necessary. There are nearly half a million aquatic species in existence, and therefore it is impossible even to attempt to cover a small fraction of this in a single volume. Therefore a selection consisting of over 350 worldwide commonly known species has been described within, to kindle the interest of the plant enthusiast and give a flavour of this specialised subject area. For ease of identification, the text is accompanied by 150 line drawings and photographs.
Dr. Vivian De Thabrew was born in Sri Lanka, where he received his formal education at Royal College, Colombo. He obtained his first and several postgraduate degrees in the U.K. He has degrees in Sanskrit, Comparative Philology, Horticulture, Turf Culture and Library Studies. His knowledge and experience in horticulture led him to investigate plants in tropical Asia, and in England he specialised in turf culture, culminating in writing several books on turf culture and aquatic flora. Thabrew has also travelled in many south-east Asian countries, such as Cambodia, Hong Kong, India, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, and made a special study of not only aquatic flora but also of Buddhist history, architecture and the iconography of the two main schools of Buddhism, namely Theravada or Hinayana (Orthodox) and Mahayana (Ritualistic).