Book excerpt: The Malayan flora is one of the richest in the world. This book gives a brief systematic account of all the major groups of seed plants classified under 41 orders and 178 families which are represented by native or naturalised plants in Peninsular Malaysia and Singapore. Within each order, a list of families, an account of the diagnostic characters, a key to the families, and a brief note on the systematic position, the evolutionary trends or other points of interest, are included. Within each family, a simple description, a short note on the distribution, and, in most cases, a key to the Malayan genera are presented. For easy reference, two appendices containing a list of orders and family names in Malay and Chinese, a simple artificial key to the common Malayan families, and a glossary are also provided.