Book Description

This full-color guide showcases the diversity of cannabis varieties. Stunning close-ups from the world's great breeders are accompanied by concise information about growing characteristics and bud quality. Engaging essays offer insights into marijuana's special botany and the culture that surrounds this controversial plant. ... Read more

Reviews (19)

Fun and Informative!
Did you know marijuana comes in many different varities? This book gives tons of info on the most popular strains of pot: if it grows best indoors or outdoors; how long flowering time is; how big the yields ususally are; what the high feels like; difficulty in growing; special growing tips that are specific to variety, and lots of other points of interest. I had no idea pot could produce so many different kinds of highs! The stereotype of the stoner with heavy lids, stuck to the couch, stuffing his face with munchies is blown apart by this book. This is for any person who's confused by all the many varieties of marijuana. Some strains give relaxing highs, others give energetic highs, some are trippy and euphoric, while others can put you to sleep. The pictures are also great; makes you wish you could just pluck those beautiful buds off the page and smoke them!

Undank
This is a very mixed bag: a few kind nuggs (e.g., handy icons outlining each strain's characteristics, dj short's palate map) thrown in with much no-love schwag (e.g., bland strain descriptions that after awhile all sound the same, grainy bud photos often lifted straight out of seed catalogs, embarrassing shots of Cannabis Cup proceedings). The book design is amateurish and tacky. I'm sure I will use it as a reference, but not with the same enjoyment I derive from Jason King's Cannabible, which may not contain as much information but is beautiful to look at and so tastefully done.

A great book!
If Audubon made a field guide to cannabis, this is what it would be like. A very informative book about different gene-lines of cannabis. This book includes a lot of historical facts about the countries where breeders can legally grow cannabis. A lot of nice pictures of the plant also make this book the best of its kind. A+ rating!

Mixed Feelings
Ed has sort of gone downhill and things are more or less being presented here like they are in the catalogues with some extra graphics. It looks nice but I do not really think that this is a book for growers. It is more like a book for people who do not own the catalogues. So if you do not own the catalogues from the seed companies then you might like this book but I have seen a lot of the pictures before. It is good that the price has come down though. It was a bit expensive for what you get when it was more than twenty dollars.

A Very Disappointing Glorified Catalogue
Ed Rosenthal's Book of Buds is a Big Book of Bad Bucks. A glorified Catalogue which contains photographs that we have all seen before. You would do just as good to order catalogues (which I already have) from famous seed banks to get the same thing. When I got this book in the post I was shocked to find that Ed had repeated every single picture from the seed catalogues. Not one picture was unique. Not one. So immediately I was very unhappy with this book but then it got worse. The descriptions are not accurate and do nothing to serve the reader with factual useful information. I later learned that Ed Rosenthal got the seed banks to pay him to do this book and he did not grow the strains and has not had any growing experience with most of them. This is the last Ed Rosenthal book I will be buying. This book is proof that Ed is far too overrated as a grower and his lack of experience shows in these writings. ... Read more

Reviews (4)

Sweet!
This is a really great book. It explains way more then you would expect for a field guide. It goes in depth about each plant, animals that depend on them and other interesting tidbits that you wont find in any other guide. The awsome illustrations are done so beautifully and true to life no one should have any problems idtentifying plants on the trail. They also truly give this book a nice touch. It's like a book of old documenting new discoveries!

Great book!
This is a must have book if you live in areas with swamps/bogs. Its so accurate I'm just amazed. It is also very easy to use. It has drawings and it talks not only about id of the plants but also their "lifestyle" (e.g. how they reproduce, various ideosyncasies of the plants, insects that are associated etc.) Each plant also has a short section on lore which adds a nice bit of history. I really like the book

Just what I was looking for!
For those people who already kind of know their way around the forest, and are more interested in what they are going to see ASSOCIATED with the plants they see than what an Audobon book says, this is a naturalist's dream come true!

Great b/w illustrations of not only leaves and fruits, but insects, diseases, toothmarks, clawmarks and nests that can be found on and around the trees and plants listed in the book...

Also highly recommended is the Forest and Thicket book by the same authors...

Unique resource for understanding this ecosystem
The authors' love of nature and years of experience clearly show in this unique field guide. Most books have an encyclopedic and repetitive approach. In contrast, this book looks at the individual plants and how they fit into the entire ecosystem ranging from companion plants, and dependent bird, mammal, and insect species. I have not seen another book that describes eastern wetlands in as much detail and yet still be highly readable. ... Read more

Book Description

At last, an authoritative guide that is also readable; one that shows the trees' relation to human and animal life -- even in the charming illustrations.Includes leaf-shape guide, range maps, and an index of popular and scientific names for over 120 trees, both native and naturalized. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Indispensable
If you are interested in trees and live in Texas, this is the ONE book you must have. So often you have to buy a Western U.S. book for West Texas and an Eastern U.S. book for East Texas - and you still don't have all the trees in the Rio Grande Valley that are primarily Mexican.

The book is clear and easy to use. Even better, it gives interesting tidbits about each tree's range and habits in Texas, including the location of the largest known example in the state.

Highly recommended!

It Really Works!
Ever wonder what kind of tree you're looking at? If you're in Texas, you can't miss with this book.

The book includes a map of soil types (with its natural diversity, Texas could be a country in itself!) and follows it with general drawings of leaves. Compare the leaf you see to the drawings in the book and you're sent to a tree family. From there you simply find the tree from more detailed drawings and area maps. It's easy! I am now considered a tree guru.

What else? Look through the book and find which trees will do best in your area, their size and flowers, virtually everything the homeowner, naturalist, or budding naturalist needs or wants to know.

When hiking our many parks and wildscape areas, other naturalist books stay home. This book comes with me...it's great! ... Read more

Book Description

More than 500 species of northeastern and central North American ferns are described and illustrated, with helpful details such as color, leaf shapes, measurements, and root forms. An illustrated key aids in quick identification. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Does a good job of covering a limited scope
I have found this field guide to be very useful, though frustratingly limited in scope.The illustrations and diagnostic data are very nice, though somewhat limited - for example, immature frond forms (when different from mature) and unique fiddlehead forms are not shown.On the plus side, this guide covers fern allies such as club mosses.Also, don't let the black-and-white illustrations put you off, they carry more useful information than color photos (of which there are some) of a fern would.My most serious beef with this field guide is that it ignores ferns which are marginally hardy or hardy only in the warmer areas of Northeast and Central North America.Don't expect to find information on Thelypteris kunthii, for example.Final analysis: If you are willing to accept its limitations, you will find this guide to be very useful.

Good pocket field guide for the amateur field bontonist
The black and white pen and ink illustrations in this field guide areexcellent.Like all Peterson Field Guides, the book begins with a shortdescription of ferns in general and a brief glossary of taxonomic termsparticular to ferns.The book is arranged (somewhat frustratingly so forthe more experienced Field Botonist) by major plant characterstic.Thetaxonomic keys are sparce and generally ineffective.Each speciesidentified in the book has a detailed drawing and a description written ineasy to understand language.These descriptions include the principledefining characterstics of each fern, and a description of its habit.

Thebook lacks a information about each ferns geographic distribution andprominance.This sometime leads the amatuer to mis-identifying thesometime confusingly similar fern species.

This book comes in true fieldguide size.It is light and compact and easily taken to the field. Dispite its weaknesses, I still take it to the field when I go somewhereoutside the mid Atlantic after even after six years of wetland delineationfield work. ... Read more

Book Description

Reviews (5)

great book for elementary school students!
I've used this book with first graders when we talk about plant and animal relationships. This book has wonderful pictures to go with the words. The students often stop me to ask me about the pictures. I love how it shows many different ways that plants and animals can "help" each other. I'd highly recommend it!

Cactus Hotel
This is an excellent book for children for learning about the interaction of plants and animals in the Southwestern desert environment. Many multi-disciplinary activities can be developed using this marvelous book!

A great book - an engaging story and great learning too!
I love this book. My kids (ages 2 and 4) love this book. Its hard to believe a story with the main character being a cactus could be so beautiful and engaging. But it is. And, at the same time as enjoying the story it teaches the kids about saguaro cacti and desert life. When I first read it I almost cried when the giant 200 year old cactus falls to the ground in a storm.

CACTUS HOTEL IS A REMARKABLE BOOK
Cactus Hotel is better than a good book. It's a marvelous book. It tells, without sentimentalizing it, the story of the life and death of a saguaro cactus. Though it is the story of one plant in nature and how other animals and insects benefit from its gifts, it is a metaphor for living--for all of us. That does not mean the book is heavy or preachy. Far from it. The text is simple in the best sense of that word and lyrical. The illustrations make you feel as if you were in that desert world, living that life. Through its generous time on earth, the cactus is home to, and provides nourishment for, various desert animals--a Gila woodpecker, an elf owl, many others. It uses its span on earth to be exactly what it was meant to be. All of nature is revealed here in its wise splendor--heat, drought, rain, cold, wind, sun. I have read this book to my daughter countless times, and I will continue to read it to her. I think I love it as much--more--than she. The book is poetry. Pure poetry.

Life cycle of the giant Saguaro brought to life for kids!
This book brings to life the life cycle of the remarkable Saguaro cactus. With delightful easy-to-understand illustration, it is a "must read" for third graders studying the desert and related topics. ... Read more

Book Description

This work, published previously by the American Rose Society (ARS), represents a listing of all officially registered rose cultivars globally.It will supersede the previous edition, Modern Roses X, published in 1993.Modern Roses XI contains descriptions for more than 25,000 roses.The book features 28 color plates and includes a CD-ROM of the entire work which makes searching easy.

Key Features
* Updates the only official registry of all rose cultivars around the workd
* Describes over 25,000 roses
* Includes a comprehensive list of roses with historical and botanical importance, including all modern international rose registrations
* Features "Old Garden Roses at Sangerhausen" together with an article on this unique rose repository
* Includes unregistered roses commonly used in commerce
* Incorporates a report on classification of roses and a report on the registration process of roses ... Read more

Reviews (3)

Book needs more pics; CD needs better search capabilities
I bought this book and CD in the hopes of being able to identify several rose plants that my husband had rescued from the city's bulldozers. It is not designed for an amateur like me who needs pictures and drawings. I am less interested in the parentage of roses than I am in what the terms "semi-double, reverse, exhibition form, cupped" mean. Some roses did not even have the color of the bloom listed. The CD is great if you know the name of the rose you wish to search for, but cumbersome if you do not. Yes, you can search based on characteristics of a rose, but it's not easy. For example, there are no drop-down menus for options on search criteria. A search for a red rose with a "strong" fragrance yielded no results; "intense" fragrance did. When the results are shown, there is no number count on how many roses fit the criteria, and when you select one rose from the results to view, you must re-perform the search to look at another one. It's extremely frustrating. There are pictures of roses on the CD, but the search result listing does not show you which ones have pictures and which do not. Help is limited to FAQ's (with only two questions listed) and an email address. There is no online method for updating the program so there is no hope of this version becoming any better. ...

The ultimate reference work on roses
If you love roses and if you want to know about the full range of rose varieties that you may encounter at your local nursery or in mail order catalogues, this volume is essential. The expense is justified in part by the CD-ROM, which gives you the ability to search the underlying database at will. I enjoyed the pictures (although they don't match other works like Botannica) as well as the articles on famous European rose gardens. In any work of this magnitude there are bound to be errors (e.g., Meilland's Michelangelo is yellow, not pink), but the overall accuracy is very impressive. If you are only dabbling in rose growing, this encyclopedic work is probably more than you need. But if you are crazy about roses, you will be crazy about this book.

Review of Modern Roses XI and CD-Rom
This edition of Modern Roses takes a giant step up from the last one! (MR10) By including *all* roses that could be reasonably well-documented, the usefulness of this reference has increased dramatically. In addition, the inclusion of a CD-ROM with great search capabilities is FANTASTIC.

Of course... as with any book of this nature... there are still a few errors in description, etc. However, this is very minor, compared to the volume of information contained.

Indispensable reference work for serious rose lovers. ... Read more

Book Description

This profusely illustrated field guide covers the 31 species of orchids that grow wild in California. The first book on California's native orchids, it will be a valuable resource for professionals and hobbyists alike. The Wild Orchids of California is an impressive extension of Ronald A. Coleman's wide fieldwork, literature review, and herbarium research. Written in a clear narrative style, Coleman's species accounts describe the plants and flowers, their habitats, distribution, pollinators, and blooming season. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Excellent resource
Great collection of information on pollination - quite complete.The book covers a short history of the study of pollination, and an introduction to pollination.The it goes into the details of the different animals that engage in pollination with a chapter on beetles and flies, another on butterflies and moths, another on bees and their relatives, and another on bats/birds, and another on wind.

The text is rather dense and has a lot of technical information and results of studies.Latin names are provided too.This is probably more of an intermediate level book.There are some color plates as well.

Flower Power
This book got me down on the ground to peer up into the cupped flowers of my hellebores to study their pollination structures and set me on stake-out around my crocuses to see who came to pollinate them. Just as The Natural History of Pollination predicted, the first honeybee of the season moved from the chalice of one crocus to the next and to the next, checking out but passing over the intervening primrose, hellebore and Oregon grape flowers. The crocus has an agenda, the bee has an agenda, and I enjoyed an early spring day in the garden more because I had more insight into their agendas. This detailed book is accessible to anyone with a basic science vocabulary and is richly illustrated with photos of plants and their pollinators, as well as helpful line drawings.I recommend this to any gardener who wants to deepen their understanding of what's going on in their garden and to any student of natural history who wants to better appreciate the complex coevolutionary dance around us.This book has made me more attentive to a world of wasps and tiny flies, and to the myriad bee species.It has helped me see flowers from the point of view of the pollinators essential to them: insects, bats and hummingbirds. Those charming dots of color on foxgloves and hellebores serve as landing guidelines for bees.The sweet perfumes of lilac and honeysuckle seduce butterflies.The carrion odor of jack-in-the-pulpit and arum lilies attracts flies. My wild ginger imitates the scent of a fungus on which a certain kind of fly lays its eggs, luring this pollinator to its flowers.And how about those white flowers that open in the evening to draw moths?I keep this book handy as new plants come into bloom, so I can appreciate them better as I understand their strategies for reproducing themselves. ... Read more

Book Description

From the award-winning author of Change Me into Zeus's Daughter comes this compelling memoir about a single mother determined to break the patterns that she has been taught.

Barbara Robinette Moss grew up in the red clay hills of Alabama, the fourth of eight children, in a childhood defined by close sibling alliances, staggering poverty, and uncommon abuse at the hands of her wild-eyed, charismatic, alcoholic father.

In Fierce, Moss looks at what happens when a child of such a family grows up. At once poetic and plainspoken, Moss, a "powerful writer" (Chicago Tribune), paints a vivid, moving portrait of her persistent quest to reinvent her life and rebel against the rural indigence, addiction, and broken dreams she inherited from her parents.

With warmth, insight, and candor, Moss tells the poignant story of finally leaving everything she knew in Alabama to fulfill her ambition to become an artist. It is an odyssey filled with gritty improvisation (bringing her son, Jason, to her night job to sleep on the floor), bittersweet pragmatism (filling her purse on a dinner date with shrimp, rolls, and even a doily, to bring home to a waiting eight-year-old), and staunch conviction and pride (chasing a mail carrier down the street to defend her use of food stamps).

As with many other children of alcoholics, the legacy of her father's alcoholism catches up with Moss, and an abusive relationship -- an inheritance and addiction of its own sort -- threatens to destroy all that she has accomplished. But as Moss learns to cope with her anger and pain, parenthood helps her discover true strength.

Ultimately, Fierce is a warm, honest, and triumphant story, from a writer celebrated for her Southern lyricism, about a woman determined to make it on her own -- to shrug off the handicaps of her childhood and raise her son responsibly and well. ... Read more

Book Description

Most concise, readable book on the art of extractingpsilocybin from magic mushrooms. Includes closet production and explainssmall and large scale production. How to locate magic mushrooms, developstock for inoculation, cultivate, harvest, and dry 'shrooms.Explainshow mycelium can be grown in inexpensive jars and methods of extractingand using existing cultures to seed new one to create an ongoing farmyielding a regular crop of hallucinogenic mycelium. Suppliers. ... Read more

Reviews (4)

DON'T BUY THIS BOOK
This book is useless. The book contains information that only a scientist would use, but the book is written so poorly that one wouldn't use it. The book contains about 3 pages of information on growing mushrooms, the rest of the book is talking about setting up like a 1000sq.ft. lab and extracting psilocybin to make acid, with chemicals that you can't even get!

Just so we are clear, THIS BOOK DOES NOT CONTAIN MUSHROOM GROWING INFORMATION.

BEGINNER BASICS
This book is good for anyone who has interest in the topic but is not familiar with it. Pretty Short, but in general a good book. Very interesting although you may need more sources to start on growing mushrooms.

Short, found out some info, confused by the rest...
This was an interesting little read, though I don't know if I learned much useful information except that raising mushrooms seems to be a super-tedious task. The author writes as if the reader is supposed to know what the heck he's talking about, but I sure didn't. Perhaps someone with some laboratory know-how would find this book informative, perhaps not. Since I'm not a lab person, I don't know if his methodology is practical or not.

M's review
very informative book, but no real information on how to find supplies. This is a very techinical book which reads fluently with step by step instructions. I highly recomend although you may need other references to compete your project. ... Read more

Book Description

Book Description

Magnificent compendium of the finely detailed plant images from the Victorian era—all identified with Latin and common names and arranged alphabetically by family. Hundreds of plant species—from lilies, lichens, poppies and palms to mushrooms, mosses, marigolds and maples—supplemented by specialized appendices on edible foods, medicinal herbs, plants used in decoration and in graphic design. Indispensable source of inspiration and copyright-free graphics for designers and artists; a captivating compendium for botanists, gardeners, and collectors of old engravings.
... Read more

Book Description

THE DRAMATIC TRUE ACCOUNT OF THE SOUTH CANYON
FIRE -- THE DEVASTATING FOREST FIRE THAT TOOK THE
LIVES OF FOURTEEN FIREFIGHTERS

In this acclaimed bestseller of investigative journalism, John N. Maclean chronicles the deadly 1994 Colorado forest fire that was wrongly identified at the outset as occurring in South Canyon. This misidentification was the first in a string of seemingly minor human errors that would be compounded into one of the greatest tragedies in the annals of firefighting as fourteen men and women firefighters -- experts in their field -- lost their lives battling the South Canyon blaze.

This stunning reconstruction of the fire and its aftermath, drawn from Maclean's exhaustive research and countless interviews, reveals fascinating insights into what went wrong, and how so many top-notch firefighters fell victim to nature at its most unforgiving. A page-turning adventure narrative brimming with action and intensity, Fire on the Mountain offers a powerful and indelible profile of a special breed of people who put their lives on the line as part of their daily jobs. ... Read more

Reviews (34)

WHEN TRUTH AND TRAGEDY COME TOGETHER
John Maclean's "FIRE ON THE MOUNTAIN" is subtitled "The True Story of The South Canyon Fire," and it is indeed the true story. Because the truth about what happened on that awful day in 1994 is so convoluted, so complex and multi-layered, and so strewn with conflicting viewpoints and cumulative errors and circumstances, writing the true story would have been impossible for anyone intimately involved with the fire. Maclean, however, brings his formidable background as a 30-year journalist to the story, and he makes the setting, the background, and the tragedy come alive for his readers.

With meticulous attention to detail and the unflagging search for facts that only a professional journalist can bring to bear, Maclean waded through stacks and years of documents, reports, interviews, and background material to produce a book that exceeded all expectations. The subjects of the book - wildland firefighters and wildland fire managers in state and federal land management agencies - nearly all agree that it's an accurate portrayal of both the South Canyon Fire and also the world of wildland fire. It's honest, it's well researched, and it's a compellingly good read. It explains and answers the many questions that nagged those of us in fire after the 1994 season.

If you're in fire, or you know someone who is, this book is mandatory.

The Standard by which others will be judged
If there is one thing I have learned over the years of reading and writing book reviews, it is that not all newspaper reporters can write and not all writers are good newspaper reporters. However, once in a while someone comes along that can do both, sometimes very well. John Maclean, a former writer, reporter and editor for the Chicago Tribune for 30 years, is such a person. He has been nominated for two Pulitzer Prizes and has written the definitive story of a wildfire near Glenwood Springs, Colo., in July of 1994 that resulted in the death of 14 men and women from Montana and Oregon. It is destined to become a classic, much as his father's books, "A River Runs Through It" and "Young Men and Fire." With the extensive media coverage of the wildfires burning in the West and the attendant cost in both property and lives, including the tragic death of a firefighter assigned to an Oklahoma crew, this book is timely and prophetic. This is the story of a wildfire that got out of control on Storm King Mountain near Glenwood Springs on July 6, 1994. Fourteen elite firefighters, both "smoke jumpers" and "hotshots," ultimately died in an inferno which was eerily similar to a fire in Montana in 1949 that claimed the lives of 13 firefighters. They all died by "inhaling fire," which leaves little to the imagination. The question is if such a "blowup" occurred in 1949 why did it happen again in 1994 to 14 of America's finest firefighters who had the training, equipment and experience to survive such an event? Maclean has meticulously researched the events leading up to the tragedy, beginning with the weather reports available to the supervisors on the ground and closing with the installation of the granite crosses on Storm King that mark the location of each body. The answer to the question of why the fire, which started with a lone pine tree and clearly visible from Interstate Highway 70, was not extinguished days earlier is enough to make your blood boil. The actions or more appropriately the inaction of government agencies is alarming and shameful. The Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Forest Service are singled out for their role in the tragedy which some say borders on the criminal. Readers not familiar with these agencies will be amazed at their ineptitude, petty bickering and callous disregard for their employees and human life. To learn that two government agency managers that failed to fight the fire in the early stages were later given pay raises and public commendations by their superiors will be a real eye-opener. This for so-called experts who couldn't even get the name of the fire's location correct. Maclean has written not only an excellent account of the tragedy but has provided the reader with an inside look at the culture of modern wildfire fighting. He explains in a riveting manner how recent incidents in Los Alamos, N.M., as well as Storm King Mountain, can and do occur with alarming regularity. That he is able to objectively provide insightful analysis and credible conslusions while at the same time exhibiting sensitivity and compassion for the victims and their comrades is a testament to the skills of this master storyteller. The book is well researched, superbly written and will be the standard by which future accounts of wildfire incidents will be judged. His father would have been proud.

Resubtitle : One of the Versions of the Storm King Fire
Gee -- this isnt the fire I remember fighting!! How eloquent and backbiting a report from someone who wasnt even there and who, while researching this book, appears to have devoted most of his time to the federal offices groups. To spend so much energy on the inability of politicos to get along when a fire is truly fought on the ground... And the truly amazing players, the local fire officers and firefighters who stepped up to the plate after the firestorm (prior to the arrival of the overhead team)and saved homes and each other -well, John you missed it, you missed most uplifting part of the story. So this isn't the "true" story of Storm King; it is one version, by someone who wasnt even there.

A disservice to the memory of his father and firefighters
Norman Maclean, himself a former firefighter and woodsman, wrote an excellent account of the Mann Gulch fire. His work was tempered by the distance of time, benefit of age, and experience in the woods. This is obvious through his interaction with the survivors and his search for what happened on that hill.

In contrast, John Maclean's account of the South Canyon fire is riddled with accusations, contradicitions of his own statements and interpretations, and a generally muckraking tone. There is searching for truth and then there is searching for animus. I wish he had left this story to those with a little more time in boots than in Chicago.

Punctuation seemed OK - 1 star is generous.

We hiked Storm King...
It was the hardest hike I have ever done for a few reasons. The book very accurately depicts the conditions of the mountain and the fire fighters working the fire. It's such a moving story about those that were lost on Storm King and their last day. Have Kleenex handy, but definitely read this book. ... Read more

Book Description

This newly designed field guide features detailed descriptions of 387 species, arranged in six major groups by visual similarity. The 47 color plates and 5 text drawings show distinctive details needed for identification. Color photographs and 295 color range maps accompany the species descriptions. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

learning at the max
this tree book is amazing.while i hate science, this book got me into it. its still not my favorite subject, but now i like it. ... Read more

Book Description

This new edition is a major contribution to botanical and ecological literature.Itprovides comprehensive coverage of the major vegetation types of North America, from the arctic tundra of Alaska to the tropical forests of Central America. Each chapter describes the composition, architecture, environment, and conservation status of each ecosystem. In addition, information is included on the abiotic environment, paleoecology, productivity, nutrient cycling, autecological behavior of dominant species, environmental issues, management problems, the role of natural disturbance, and critical areas for future research. This new edition has additional chapters on freshwater wetlands, coastal marine wetlands, temperate Mexico, the Caribbean, and the Hawaiian Islands. Every chapter has been thoroughly updated and now includes information on habitat loss and restoration-preservation programs.This is an outstanding new edition of a well-received text and it is essential reading for students and researchers in plant science, ecology, and conservation. ... Read more

Book Description

This authoritative and magnificently illustrated presentation of the art of flower depiction in the West is the third volume in a series of catalogues that describe the rare in some cases unique books, manuscripts, and other works of art conserved at Oak Spring Garden Library, Upperville, Virginia, a collection formed over many years by Rachel Lambert Mellon.The author, Lucia Tongiorgi Tomasi, has selected more than one hundred items from Oak Spring's extensive holdings, which include superb manuscript florilegia, botanical prints, books of instruction of every kind, still-life and vanitas paintings, and various ornamental ceramics and textiles.Among them are examples by some of the greatest names ever to have worked in either scientific or decorative botanical art Jacques Le Moyne de Morgues, Georg Dionysius Ehret, Nicolas Robert, and Pierre Joseph Redoute.

An Oak Spring Flora is thematically organized, with topics ranging from Tulipomania and women artists to Dutch and Flemish painting and the search for exotics in remote lands.In her introductions the author provides the personal and contextual backgrounds that are essential for a real understanding and appreciation of floral illustration past and present.The sheer beauty as well as extraordinary skills encountered in, for example, manuscript florilegia by Jacob Marrel and Maria Sibylla Merian, hand-colored books by Pierre Vallet and G. B. Ferrari, and flower studies by John Constable and others, are testament to the high status accorded floral illustration over the centuries.

The latest addition to the Oak Spring Garden Library series will be of great interest to collectors of rare books and fine-art historians as well as to botanists, garden historians, and gardeners in general.

1997, 504 pages.9-5/8 x 11-1/4 inches, including 200 illustrations, over 157 of them in color. ... Read more

Book Description

This magnificent field guide is the latest addition to the exciting series that is revolutionizing the way we look at butterflies. Greatly expanding on Butterflies Through Binoculars: The Boston-New York-Washington Region--identified by Defenders of Wildlife Magazine as "the first to focus on netless butterflying" and called " a clear winner" by the Audubon Naturalist--Glassberg here shows us how to find, identify, and enjoy all of the butterflies native to the eastern half of the United States and southeastern Canada. This guide:

*Combines the immediacy and vividness of actual photographs of living butterflies with the traditional field guide format

*Emphasizes conservation over collection

*Includes 630 color photographs, arranged on 72 color plates, of butterflies in the wild

*Provides adjacent color maps that show where each species occurs in a given locality and for how much of the year

*Supplies entirely new field marks for butterfly identification

*Demonstrates how to identify subjects by way of the key characteristics butterflies are likely to display in their natural settings

*Shows how species can be recognized both from above and below

*Explains how to differentiate between males and females.

For butterfly enthusiasts, for bird watchers who want to add a new dimension to their hobby, for anyone who is simply interested in exploring the wilds of their own back yard, this new field guide offers hours of delightful help and instruction. ... Read more

Reviews (8)

Best Butterfly id book!
Without comparison, this is the best butterfly id book around. It is really easy to navigate and find specific butterflies quickly, even for the novice. It has maps as well as larval foods for the different butterflies. Quite complete. I keep it sitting right here on my desk so that when I see a butterfly flitter by I can run outside and id it. Its also has tips on identifying butterflies that may look similar which is helpful. I'd buy it again for sure!

Best book out there right now.
If you are interested in butterflies on any scale, you must have this book! The pictures are really good for comparison in the field. A must have for anyone who participates in butterfly counts. This book will make you addicted to watching butterflies like it did me! Be careful! :-)

Solid primer, somewhat awkward field guide
This book provides perhaps the best available set of basic instructions for butterfly watching. As some of the other reviews mention, it's not just a field guide; it's also a very thorough and pleasing introduction to how to go about the hobby. What type of binocs to choose (close focus please) is, for example, the sort of basic thing it covers well.

That being said, Butterflies through Binoculars shares a lot of the same traits I find mildly frustrating in the current set of Audubon's bird guides. It uses photographs, which I've always found less useful than thoughtful artist's drawings in my bird books. All the plates, moreover, are stacked together in front of the book. Maybe others find it handy to flip through pictures only, but I'd much rather see things like the better bird guides do it: color plates on one side, succinct species description with range map on the other. Whenever I use a guide like this in the field I end up flipping back and forth in my field guide like I can't make up my mind.

For that reason, I'd recommend this as an introductory title, but I'd say we're still waiting for a really wonderful field guide.

One of the Best Field Guides!
An absolute must have! Glassberg, who is president of the North American Butterfly Association, shares his knowledge of these delicate creatures and makes identifcation easy and fun. Includes 625 color photos (most by Glassberg) of free-flying butterflies. The first butterfly guide to use plates showing correct size relationships among species. Also features sections on binoculars, photography, biology, conservation, and gardening. You won't be sorry you purchased this fine book!

I Agree-- This One Makes it Easy and Fun
Yes, this is a superior field guide, whether one is collecting or watching. And, the texts are also pithy and contain some great and timely information on the butterflies and especially conservations situations. The butterfly enthusiast crowd is lucky to have had such an upsurge in interest in its subject, and Glassberg is to be credited with kindling much of this. Speaking of Butterflies through Binoculars-- a wonderful narrative about same, through the binoculars of history, is the recent Nabokov's Blues by Kurt Johnson, another prominent lepidopterist. Its time to look at butterflies, appreciate them, and increase our knowledge as well. Get out with Glassberg's book and then go home and read some "sit-down" informative entomology. Enjoy. ... Read more

Book Description

Medicinal Plants of the World is a comprehensive and scientifically accurate guide to the best-known and most important medicinal plants, including those of special commercial or historical interest. The book aims to conceptualise this rapidly expanding field of study and includes:

--Descriptions of more than 300 medicinal plants and their close relatives. Each entry gives a short summary with the following information: a description of the plant, the geographical origin, therapeutic category, historical and modern uses, active ingredients and pharmacological effects.

--More than 500 full-colour photographs that will assist in the identification of the plants and related or similar plants.

--Introductory chapters on various healing cultures of the world, general concepts, common ailments and their treatment with modern phytomedicines and with traditional remedies and the study of active compounds and their pharmacological effects.

--A quick guide and checklist of all the most important and well known medicinal plants of the world, listed according to scientific name but giving the common names, family name, region of origin, therapeutic category, and plant parts used. Also included is a glossary of medical and related terms.

The book will appeal to both laypersons and those with a professional interest in medicinal plants. It is an essential reference guide for health care professionals---doctors, nurses and especially pharmacists---or anyone with an interest in medicinal plants and their uses. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

A reference that health care professionals will relish
The collaborative effort of Ben-Erik Van Wyk and Michael Wink,Medicinal Plants Of The World isn't just another casual listing of plants and their homeopathic applications: it's an in-depth, scientifically accurate, superbly presented, seminal survey and guide to the best-known medicinal plants and describes over three hundred plants and relatives with short descriptions, geographic origins, therapeutic category, historical and modern uses, and active ingredients. Add 700 color photos to help identification and a checklist of the top 900 plants listed by scientific and common name and you have a reference that health care professionals will relish and refer to time and time again.

Concise, thorough, user-friendly reference
This really is a great addition to your shelf if you're an ethnobotanist, botanist, or health practitioner. The book is very user-friendly and has all of the medicinal plants from the German Commission E monographs, the new ESCOP and WHO's (World Health Organization) medicinal plant monographs. The entries are short, but packed with synonymous names, origin, useful parts, uses, preparation/dosage information, warnings, and status. The listing of active ingredients is quite nice -- and more explicit than many similar sources. There is additional information on over 900 additional medicinally-useful plants in the appendix. In addition to useful and easy-use-indexes, the book has a nice introductory section. The summary information on botanical medicine use in numerous cultures is more complete than the usual reference of this sort. The text is clearly written and the book itself is of high quality with crisp photos, easy-to-read print, a solid hardcover binding. It's definitely worth the price and makes a good, easy reference. ... Read more

Book Description

This guide features 300 of the common plants of the Sonoran Desert. Detailed descriptions, information about bloom season and range, and interesting facts about each plant accompany the full-color photographs.300 color photos ... Read more

Book Description

More than 1,000 species of mushrooms described in detail.Over 700 paintings and drawings reveal subtle field marks that cannot be captured into photographs. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

mushroom field guide
I found this book to be well illustrated. And although not as comprehensive as i'd hoped, it is still the most complete guide I have found. Overall, I feel it is well above average--and I'm quite hard to please! ... Read more