'...tantalizing sampler of how two of the main menus of current biological research...can join and produce much richer results. ...this [first of Section 1] article provides one of the best expositions of the essential issues in contemporary molecular systematics...recommend it as required reading for any advanced student of evolutionary biology. The second chapter...contributes an excellent and readable explanation of the basic logical assumptions and statistical methods of likelihood estimation. ...extremely well and clearly written [two chapters in the third section]... Plant Molecular Evolution nicely complements recent contributions... (Soltis et al. 1998)...deserves a place in the library of any plant evolutionary biologist or molecular biologist.' Plant Systematics and Evolution, 226:1-2 (2001)