An Arkansas Florilegium: The Atlas of Botanist Edwin Smith Illustrated by Naturalist Kent Bonar. With an Introduction by Robert Cochran. 2017. Many line-drawings and dot maps. XXVIII, 593 p. 4to. Hardcover.

An Arkansas Florilegium is a late-flowering extension of the work initiated sixty years ago with University of Arkansas botanist Edwin B. Smiths first entries in his pioneering Atlas and Annotated List of the Vascular Plants of Arkansas. Soon after this seminal survey of the states flora was published in 1978, Kent Bonar began lugging the volume along on hikes through the woods surrounding his Newton County home, entering hundreds upon hundreds of meticulous illustrations into Smiths work.

Thirty-five years later, with Smith retired and Bonar long gone from the park service but still drawing, Bonars weathered and battered copy of the atlas was seized by a diverse cadre of amateur admirers motivated by fears of its damage now jammed to the margins with some 3,500 drawings, and the volume had already survived one accidental dunking in an Ozark stream. An Arkansas Florilegium brings Smiths and Bonars knowledge and lifelong diligence to the world in this unique mix of art, science, and Arkansas saga.