Armed with hand lenses and opera glasses, traveling on foot, by buggy, or model T, they explored thousands of miles of deserts, forests, beaches, and jungles. They were pioneering women naturalists who observed, studied, and experimented, then returned to write up their findings. What resulted were exquisitely written and scientifically accurate accounts of their explorations into natural science - a field long dominated by men. Marcia Myers Bonta...

"George Brookes, a 75-year old recluse on a small Canadian island, is plagued by guilt, afraid that his botany experiments have released a monster upon the world. He climbs to the top of a cliff and jumps to his death. Several weeks later, six people arrive on the island, heirs to George's estate: his daughter, Isabelle, and her three teenagers, Jules Beecher, a friend and fellow botanist, and Ginny Shufflebottom, a contentious Englishwoman who funded...