In this popular science volume, Mortenson, who studied the philosophy of science at the University of Minnesota, clarifies nature's most confusing pairs or groups of words. To this end he has looked at 243 designations that refer to a form of plant or animal life and attempts to explain how they are related or not related to life forms thought to be similar, like the butterfly and the moth or the turtle and the tortoise. Although Mortenson has done exhaustive research and is knowledgeable about his subject, he does not transform specialist information into accessible prose for the layperson. His introductory discussion of nomenclature and taxonomy is difficult to understand for those not familiar with many of the Latin and technical designations used. For readers who persevere, the text does yield interesting nuggets about words often misused interchangeably. A sweet potato, for example, is a delicious root vegetable, while a yam is actually a bitter-tasting tuber. Rabbits and hares are definitely not rodents, even though their dental structure resembles that of the rat, a true rodent. Solitary grasshoppers can be transformed into swarming locusts, when environmental conditions are right. In order to uncover this information, however, it is necessary to plow through a great deal of dense verbiage. (Nov.)
