This book has arranged the plants according to the color of their flowers, the most obvious characteristic. The book is sectioned into areas for all colors (white, yellow, blue, pink, red, etc.). If a plant flowers in more than one color, it is shown in each color area. The color photos show excellent examples of the plant. The only drawback to using this book would be if the plant is not flowering. Other plant characteristics are listed with the pictures, but it would be difficult to locate a specific species if the flower color was unknown.

The field of patent searching has changed greatly over the last few years -- mainly due to the fact that all searching is done electronically now. Any book on this topic more than a year or so old is necessarily going to be dated. This probably wasn't a bad book when it came out, but you cannot learn to patent search properly with this book now.

If you have a decent command of computers, have performed searches on the internet before, are capable of following basic instructions, and are familiar with libraries, then don't bother buying this book. All of the information in the book is readily available from the PTO website and it's links. While the information is available elsewhere, this book does do a fine job of compiling it all in one source that is accessible to everyone (read lowest common denominator).

Many references that speak of Internet sites require updating, and Mr. Hitchcock and crew have done just that for this second edition. Inventors have various levels of expertise; some need more instructions than do others. This book puts all on a nearly- equal footing. It takes the mystery (and a lot of work) out of what once was a daunting and truly tedious task. Kudos to David and to Nolo Press -- and to the Internet and those agencies and companies [e.g., IBM] putting their data on-line for free access!