Good book, yet not a flora
595298
Good book, yet not a flora.  Still has plenty of exact botanical terms for identifying plants by leaf and stem characteristics.

I wish it were arranged alphabetically by Family, rather than Genus.
203574
While this book is certainly not a comprehensive flora, it is a cursory glance at herbaceous flowering plants of North America. This is a wonderful book for the botanically minded individual that is familiar with familial relationships. I am in California, and this book doesn't come close to covering the diversity of plants here. I simply appreciate the book for what it is; a tome covering a majority of plant families in North America with select genera represented with a beautiful array of color images.
3675211
I was disappointed when I purchased this book about two years ago.  I was expecting it to be more about natural perfumery.  It does have some fully natural recipes, but many include synthetics.  There's also a big focus on commercial perfumes and for me that was essentially useless.  I was actually a bit surprised that Storey published this since most of their books have a more natural focus.

Your appreciation of this book will be greatly influenced by your feelings about synthetic fragrances.  I don't think the author did a poor job, she simply wrote from her own perspective, one that I do not share.  If you are into synthetic fragrances and commercial perfumes, you will probably be happy with this book - if not, look further.

Mandy Aftel has come out with a book about natural perfumery - called Scents & Sensibilities - that I do not own yet, but may be worth checking out.  I do own Mindy Green's book about perfumery, which is full of recipes.  The only problem I have with it is that so many of the blends contain sandalwood, an oil that comes from a threatened species.
4346869
This is a good introduction to modern forest genetics. It's written by knowledgeable men in the industry. The book stresses the positives of genetic engineering and mostly brushes over the potential risks. At least it acknowledges that there are areas of concern.

Whether done by conventional breeding systems or transgenic manipulation, tree plantations are losing diversity at a time when globilization is exposing forests to a greater number of pests and diseases than at any time in the past. This should have been explored more deeply.
2740907
My main complaint about this book is that there are no hardiness zones given for the plants. It's a beautiful book with lots of great info if you want to add fragrance to your garden BUT be prepared to cross reference everything if you do not live in California.
4377476
"The Botany of Desire: A Plant's-Eye View of the World" ($13.95 in paperback from Random House) is by Michael Pollan, an instructor at the Graduate School of Journalism at UC Berkeley.

Pollan writes that "the seeds of this book were first planted in my garden. ... I happened to be sowing rows in the neighborhood of a flowering apple tree that was fairly vibrating with bees. And what I found myself thinking about was this: What existential difference is there between the human being's role in this (or any) garden and the bumblebee's?"

What follows are four long essays about co-evolution, in which "both parties act on each other to advance their individual interests but wind up trading favors: food for the bee, transportation for the apple genes." Agriculture is about human-plant co-evolution, Pollan says; "it makes just as much sense to think of agriculture as something the grasses did to people as a way to conquer the trees."

Each of the essays is about some kind of human desire. The apple represents sweetness (not very abundant in the Old West); the tulip is beauty (feeding tulipomania in Holland from 1635-1637); marijuana feeds the human desire for intoxication; and the potato is a symbol of the human desire to control the natural world.

The apple chapter focuses on John Chapman, "Johnny Appleseed," who "understood he was working for the apples as much as they were working for him." Pollan writes that until Prohibition, "apples were something people drank. ... Johnny Appleseed was bringing the gift of alcohol to the frontier." And that brings up a key theme in the book, the interplay between "Apollo" (reason) and "Dionysius" (ecstasy), between the garden and the wilderness.

The author samples high grade cannabis in Amsterdam and muses on the nature of the "high," something, he says, that melts away short term memory and explains "the sense that time has slowed or even stopped. For it is only by forgetting that we ... approach the experience of living in the present moment."

The potato is about biotechnology. Pollan writes of a Monsanto patent on the NewLeaf potato (since, apparently, withdrawn from market) which is bioengineered to contain a natural pesticide. That would cut down on the need for chemical sprays to protect potatoes, but it would also mean, unless great care were taken, that bugs would more quickly adapt to the NewLeaf variety (since spraying is only periodic but the potatoes them-selves are around for the entire season).

This is the dance of co-evolution. "The survival of the sweetest, the most beautiful, or the most intoxicating proceeds according to a dialectical process, a give-and-take between human desire and the universe of all plant possibility. It takes two, but it doesn't take intention, or consciousness." When it comes to plant and human, we are "in this boat together."
3688577
I like the book for it's identification of plants, however for a new gardner I felt it incomplete. If you look up a plant description, most of them do not say what type of fertilizer to use, what kind of soil it likes, or does the plant like heavy watering or dry areas. I am disappointed with the book, I thought it would be more all inclusive under the plant name.
1804854
I enjoyed  this book. The characters  are fleshed  out  nicely  and the  enemies  they fight are interesting. To be honest ,  I'm  only writing  a review  to mention  that  the  repeated  and  ridiculously  placed mentions  of environmentally  friendly  dish soap and immortals rinsing  cans out so they can be recycled  (but  not before  the  label  is peeled  off). The descriptions  aren't  organically  (get it? ) woven  into  the  story  so it  yanked  me out  of  the  scene  and into a state  of  mild annoyance . I am aware of and support  being as green  and  environmentally friendly as possible ,  but  natural salad dressing  and  organic Cornish  hens really  don't  need to  get  so many  mentions . It comes off as  clumsy ,  forced . I  had  hoped  that  it would  have  gotten  better after the  first  book, maybe the different  characters  would  help , but no.
2930433
Eric Grissell's _Insects and Gardens_ may be a fair introduction for the gardener beginning to be interested in ecological gardening or concerned about the environment one lives in.

The first one-hundred pages are a quick tour of entomology.  Contrary to what Grissell says, the student learns significantly more in an introductory entomology course than what he is able to offer in one-hundred pages.  The next several chapters discuss insect-plant and insect-insect interactions, and how a garden with diversity can foster and enhance these relationships.  The final sections give high-level suggestions for increasing this diversity in the garden, concluding with a broad overview of insect-human cultural interactions.  The concluding chapters were, I thought, tacked-on for extending book length and not particularly relevant.  A book on insect garden ecology does not seem to need a cursory look at human-insect cultural milestones.

Personally, I found this to largely be a compilation of gardening ideas gleaned from other books about naturalized gardening.  These concepts were then taken to a very high level for presentation to, I assume, a target market of gardeners beginning to consider wildlife-friendly gardens.  To someone who has read a few books on naturalized gardening, ecology, or entomology, most of this book should be nothing new.  If you are looking for plans or suggestions on gardening more than a few paragraphs long, this book is not for you; it is more a collection of basic entomological and ecological theory and a few habitat creation ideas.  As a result, I am somewhat disappointed with its prizes (and praises).

A major shortcoming of the book is Grissell's fairly dismissive attitude toward the concept of native plants.  At first he ridicules those of us concerned with the relationship between native plants and the surrounding environment, but later acknowledges with a few sentences that native insects are generally unable to use non-native plants, and thus non-natives are not particularly useful for wildlife gardening.  Grissell's suggestion for gardeners is to focus on creating diverse habitat types for insects rather than worrying about native vegetation.  The problem with this advice is, perhaps obviously, that all the diversity in the world will not matter if insects are unable to actually make use of the plants.  Grissell has done a disservice by not emphasizing the importance of native plants to all species.

I also did not appreciate Grissell's colloquial and occasionally flippant tone.  When I read a book on methods or theory, I want to be talked to respectfully, not glibly.

In general, this might be a satisfactory book for some people wanting to gather more information on wildlife-friendly gardening.  Grissell's bibliography presents several superior titles, however: Swain's _A Gardener's Ecology_, Thompson's _The Self Sustaining Garden_, Marinelli's _Stalking the Wild Amaranth_, and Tallamy's _Brining Nature Home_.
2188497
This is a beautiful book.  The full page pictures of many kinds of flowers and flower arrangements are gorgeous, and I loved looking at them.  The author is obviously a wonderful floral designer.  She works with the natural qualities of each flower to make stunning displays.

However, there really just isn't a huge amount of content here.  It's called "The Flower Book" but it's more like a flower arranging book.  It does talk a very small amount about buying or growing each flower, but not enough to be a guide to that.  Even within the topic of flower arranging, there is only a short section in the front dedicated to that subject in general.  After that, some of the flowers, not all, have a couple pages showing a display you can make with that flower.  You'd need to have a good deal of money or an amazing garden to make almost all of them, as they either involve many, many kinds of flowers and greens, or a great deal of varieties of the same flower.

I did enjoy looking through this book a lot, and I picked up a few interesting tips, like that tulips still grow after being cut and that daffodils in a mixed display can hurt other kinds of flowers.  However, with an ordinary budget and a regular backyard garden, I won't be making any of these displays any time soon!  So I'd get this book if you are interested in fairly high end flower designing, or if you just love looking at pictures of flowers and bouquets and aren't planning on using the book as a reference work.
701095
Sagan's "Cosmos" is a fine generalization of the different elements and processes that drive our universe. Yet, the book (like all other books) is only a step in our development as human beings, and should  not be revered too greatly. Like the religious scriptures' biases toward  mystery and metaphysics, "Cosmos" expresses all the prejudices  and assumptions of a biologist: in summa, one who wishes to be truthful  must read the book critically (Note, for example, Sagan's belief in  evolution by natural selection).
For serious scientific understanding,  one would be best studying the disciplines' origins and histories, through  their primary sources: the Ionian philosphers, the Arab astronomers,  Renaissance authors, Einstein's explanation of Special and General  Relativity, and so forth. This will take energy (which most folks are too  lazy to exert), but the intellectual and spiritual rewards are ample.
689950
Please ignore the reviews of people here who haven't read the book, or people with an agenda or people talking about "logical fallacies" without seemingly knowing what that means.

This book is an examination of the sexual practices of a wide variety of species of animals, including humans.  The book concludes that there are significant evolutionary advantages to non-monogamous sexual relationships and there seem to be very clear bodily adaptations that evolved because of this.  These points are just not arguable in good faith.

The book doesn't draw any conclusions about the "naturalness" of monogomy except that it is rare, because that discussion is metaphysics at best; the religious among us use "natural" as a proxy for "our interpretation of gods will" or "how we think society ought to be".  We live in a dangerous age where people are willing to deny the truth as it suits them.  We have a duty as rational beings to accept objective truth no matter how unpalatable.

I think the book is a very good read if you're at all interested in the topic.  I did not however find the writing style very interesting, and I had trouble keeping track of the many many types of animals discussed and their various traits.  I also felt the conclusion was far too apologetic towards current societal beliefs and a bit simple minded.  Nevertheless, a good read if you're interested in the subject.
256516
This is an interesting introduction to various weeds and plants (not mushrooms) that you can forage for anywhere from common suburbia to the backcountry trails. I enjoyed it, and Wiltens' illustrations are clear black-and-white field sketches. The book has no photographs, but in plant identification, photographs only tell part of the story and don't let you highlight or emphasize a particular feature of a plant, like the "tiny hairs" that the observer must identify to know the difference between an edible tasty plant and hemlock. It's not comprehensive-- Wiltens even says as much in the introduction, insisting that readers should positively ID against three different field guides (though without recommending any reputable ones), and being a slim volume means it's good for carrying in a backpack, but can't provide all the details. I think a section on common preparations would have made the volume more concise, instead of breaking it down and repeating instructions for leaching for each plant needing it (for instance).
4227924
I love this book and anyone who is serious about plants would love it too.  It gets only 4 stars because this isn't the book I keep on my nightstand.  And, yes, I'm an avid gardener apt to plant the new and unusual.  However, if I really need to know something and find a picture of it, it is almost always here.  It's a great browsing book too.

I would keep it closer if it didn't take up my whole night stand and weigh a lot.

Also, if you don't know the botanical name for the plant you have to use the "Flora" translater, but that only translates from the common name to the botanical name and not both ways.  Very bothersome.

The book I do keep on my nightstand is "The American Horticultural Society of Plants and Flowers" which is primarily organized by plant uses.

I use them both for very different reasons and I'm glad I have them both.
3359415
Drawing and Sketching Nature  by Kate Berry

  There is a LOT of good stuff here and many folks who like to sketch/draw from Nature will find this both helpful and enjoyable. But there is one important point to make  neither necessarily Good nor Bad  just Important.

  This book is a wee bit misnamed. It should be called: Drawing and Sketching Leaves, Stems, Grass, Flowers, Trees, Branches, and assorted other Plants. And it is really more about sketching than drawing. But no matter who you are or what nature studies you prefer, you can definitely learn things you'll value here.
655771
With this book Narby grows more ambitious, and as with many ambitious projects, it doesnt satisfy as easily as his first. In a nutshell, as the title implies, his underlying question is, Does nature, i.e., plants in particular, have the ability to know?

At first blush it would seem so; in this exploration, Narby doesnt do the experiential stuff. Instead, he asks the questions of scientists who do (and some have been doing this research for a quarter-century). As a result, the book seems a little distanced from his subject, since hes writing about the subject with second- and third-hand information. Still, he a good enough writer to made the search interesting and sometimes downright funny.

What does he discover here?

That the functioning of plants, especially vine plants, mimics a naked nervous system. (See how Charles Darwin came up with his ideas?) Vines seem able of making decisions, or rather, choices, on finding food for survival. Slimes and fungi can even crawl onto logs and such in order to be positioned for nourishment and survival.

In the final analysis, there is much conjecture regarding whether plant life of all ilks - or none - know in a manner similar to the way humans do. Still, the chase is what seems to sustain Narby, as it does the scientists he interviews and the people, like me, who read his books.

If a single thing makes reading his book worthwhile, its a long compendium of notes that serve to reinforce his text. These notes, then, often prove more edifying and entertaining than the text itself.

My rating: 16 of 20 stars
4648235
Its not a "bible" of outdoor plants but it is well written and comes with a LOT of handy pictures.  If you Only knew what that "don't touch that plant" looked like or the "use this plant in this situation"...and had it in a light and easy to carry and easy to understand format.  Oh wait.  Theirs this book.  (Now if it only had a compass and a map to the nearest coffee shop on the back)