This is the first book, written for the layman and keen naturalist, to give an overall account of the main vegetation types, natural and semi-natural, which now cover Britain and Europe. Examples of each main plant community are briefly described and characteristic species are listed and illustrated in 60 full-page line drawings. Colour and black-and-white photographs, together with distribution maps, help the reader to identify each type of vegetation. More than 100 areas of Europe are described and illustrated: Arctic, Boreal, Atlantic, Central European, Mediterranean, Pannonic, Alpine, wetlands, and coastal types. Complex systems of classification are avoided. An extensive list of national parks and nature reserves, with notes on the types of vegetation found in them, is given. This will aid readers in finding those species and vegetation types which particularly interest them.