|
Publisher:
HarperResource |
Release
Date: November 4, 2003 |
ISBN:
0062702319 |
Awards:
|
Format
Reviewed: Hardcover (688 pages) |
Buy
it at Amazon |
Read
an Excerpt |
Genre:
Nonfiction / Botany / North America |
Reviewed:
2003 |
Reviewer:
Brenda Weeaks |
Reviewer
Notes: www.marjorieharris.com |
|
Botanica
North America
An
Illustrated Guide to Native Plants: Their Botany, Their History,
and the Way They Have Shaped Our World
By Marjorie
Harris
Canadian
garden writer Marjorie Harris has created an extensive reference
book about North American plants, and gone the extra mile with some
fascinating information. Harris divided North America into 10 regions
- The Easter Forests, Swamps and Wetlands, Florida, The Boreal Forest,
The Prairie, The Desert, California, Montane, The Tall Trees, and
The Tundra.
Included
in each section is technical plant information, as well as little
insights into each plant, such as how the lines on the leaves of
the viola lead the bee to the heart of the plant. There are also
some wonderful quotes such as one from Walt Whitman's "I Saw
in Louisiana a Live-Oak Growing." And some trivia revealing
how North American history played in these sections, for instance,
how the Pilgrims found themselves in the East Coast forest -- an
ecology so complex they felt they had to subdue it instead of celebrating
it.
With
688 pages, Botanica is a big book harboring some wonderful little
surprises, just like the forests it covers. Those who wisely invest
in Botanica will find their favorite hobby ruling the conversation
just by leaving it on a coffee table, open to one of the colorful
pages. The photographs in Botanica are beautiful; some so much so
that I would consider using them in framed montage for my office
wall or on my computer as wallpaper.
|