This book records the knowledge and experience Swahili-speaking people have acquired in dealing with then plant world (p. 12). With its folk botanic approach it aims at discovering the principles of taxonomy they apply in classifying and labelling their plants as well as the different kinds of uses they make of them. This is what distinguishes the book from other dictionaries of Swahili plant names, e.g. P. J. Greenway (A Swahili-Botanical-English Dictionary of Plant Names Second edition. Dares Salaam 1940) where short descriptions of morphological plant characteristics are given. Greenway only makes some remarks about the use of important plants. The dictionary of J. Schroebler and J. Berchem (Mimea ya Afrika Mashariki. Sehemu ya pili. Kamusi ya majina ya mimea. Cologne: Omimee Publishers 1992) consists of a list of Swahili plant names with then botanical equivalents and some additional remarks on plant ecology.