This is a record kept for one house and the things growing in and around it: on the balcony, along the side path, and by the front gate where the frangipani has long outgrown its bed.

Each specimen gets a page of its own — what it is called in Latin and in plain speech, what light and water it wants, whether it is safe around animals, and how certain the naming really is. Where a name is still a guess, the page says so plainly.