The Plants of Middle-earth

"This is a very nice book about important items in Middle-earth. Apart from some typical middle-earth plants like elanor, athelas and mallorn, all the flora from Middle-earth can be found in your average plant determination book. They help you feel at home in Middle-earth. Dinah Hazell explores this aspect of Tolkiens world. She links the plants also to biographical information on Tolkien, to other authors well-known by Tolkien like William Morris and William Shakespeare, to old literature, and to British folklore.
The book has five chapters. The first is about the names of female hobbits, which are all related to plants (Rosie and Lily Cotton, e.g.). The second chapter takes you on a botanical trip from Frodo's garden to the crossroads. Ithilien gets a chapter of its own, as it has a very detailed description of its mediterranean vegetation. Also woods and trees get their own chapter. The last chapter is on destruction and recovery, both symbolised by botanical life. The destruction of plants is one of the dominant manifestations of evil (the Two Trees, Isengard, rowan trees in Fangorn).
The book has beautifull illustrations, b/w drawings and watercolours. One point of criticism is that Dinah Hazell only talks about plants in The Lord of the Rings. She refers to other books, but she did not take the time to reread even The Hobbit on extra botanical information, let alone Unfinished Tales or HoME. And that is a pity".