As the title indicates, mosses, one of Planet Earth's longest running success stories, are the focus of this book. Around for about 400 million years, mosses are still evolving, even though there are already some 15,000 species spread from the Arctic to the Antarctic.

At first discovery, Moss Gardening appears to be a whimsical approach to gardening. Most of us, not surprisingly, think "flowering plants" when the word "garden" is mentioned.

But moss is more than "just another pretty face" in one's garden. Mosses and their companion cryptograms (tiny plants that reproduce by spores), tiny liverworts, lichens, lycopodiums and certain of the selaginellas, lend an aura of age and stability to a garden. This book, along with expanding your appreciation of these plants, will also enlarge your vision of them, for mosses are not simply junk plants to be weeded out or consigned to throw-away garden corners. Mr. Schenk's 97 color plates dramatically illustrate that mosses should be more widely used even to the point of square yardage as in moss lawns. (Beautiful!)

Moss also can form a lovely frame for bulbs peeking up or bursting out through (Plate 53, pg. 127). Bulbophiles definitely should consider experimenting with this unique approach to groundcover under their bulbous plants.

Bonsai and its derivatives would be the poorer were it not for mosses and Plate 60, page 147 shows the simplest of tiny gardens: moss partially covering a rock "island" sitting in a bowl of water: tiny, tranquil, tender, a perfect focus for just unwinding or deep meditation.

Along with its excellent text, the many photographic representations of mosses and lichens especially-but also liverwort, lycopodium and selaginella-make this book especially useful for those of us who like to "see" as well as "read about" plants. Mr. Schenk has assembled these photos with an eye for both art and function.

I would like to have seen a general index included (an "Index of Mosses and Other Bryophytes" is included). But the book is so well written and so well photographed that perhaps others might find such unnecessary.

Mr. Schenk is to be commended for tackling such a rarely discussed gardening subject and for producing such a practical, beautiful result therefrom. This book rates a thumbs up from me.

Charles Hardman