The 1,000 pages of "CTW" have been condensed into 688 larger pages with two columns of more readable text.

"CTM" was poised to be the standard flora for the higher plant botanist in Britain into the 21st century. Then along came Stace’s "New Flora". This was adopted by the BSBI for the Atlas 2000 flora mapping project and everybody forgot about CTW/CTM. This is a shame because, excellent though Stace’s work is, there is a wealth of descriptive detail and other information in CTW/CTM which is not in Stace, although Stace’s coverage of hybrids, and especially aliens is much more comprehensive. (Note: some of the entries for hybrids in CTW are not found in CTM, eg those of Senecio cineraria.)

CTM’s keys work well and the descriptions are sufficently detailed to enable confident identification. Even if you use Stace for day-to-day identification, CTM (or CTW) is still a useful back-up for confirmation or a different way of expressing things.

The species entries are a mine of information, giving flowering (and often fruiting) period (noticeably inaccurate in these days of climate change), chromosome counts (showing, for example, that Lady’s Smock - Cardamine pratensis - is actually a neglected complex of microspecies), pollenators (several Helleborines - Epipactis - are wasp-pollenated) status, no of vice counties, distribution in Britain and abroad.