Focusing on the human relationship with plants, the author of Second nature uses botany to explore four basic human desires, sweetness, beauty, intoxication, and control, through portraits of four plants that embody them, the apple, tulip, marijuana, and potato. Every school child learns about the mutually beneficial dance of honeybees and flowers; the bee collects nectar and pollen to make honey and, in the process, spreads the flowers' genes far...

"With beautiful India ink illustrations by the author, this book describes every known plant species around the world (roughly 500) that in one way or another is used in the process of brewing, or making beer. The book is as much for homebrewers and professional beer makers as it is for beer aficionados, botany enthusiasts, and collectors of illustrated food books. The volume contains detailed information that is scientifically verified and precise...

Discover the ever-surprising world around you by exploring plants with a botanist.

Presents an introduction to the science of botany written specifically for gardeners and horticulturists, focusing on flowering plants or angiosperms, the largest group in the plant kingdom, and gymnosperms, plants that produce seeds in the open spaces of cones.