A Seed Is Sleepy

Book Description

Award-winning artist Sylvia Long and author Dianna Hutts Aston have teamed up again to create this gorgeous and informative introduction to seeds. Poetic in voice and elegant in design, the book introduces children to a fascinating array of seed and plant facts, making it a guide that is equally at home being read on a parent's lap as in a classroom reading circle.

Science and Colonial Expansion: The Role of the British Royal Botanic Garden

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An excellent book
Best book my mom ever wrote

Science and Colonial Expansion: The Role of the British Royal Botanic Garden
Lucile H. Brockway
Manufacturer: Yale University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0300091435

Book Description

This widely acclaimed book analyzes the political effects of scientific research as exemplified by one field, economic botany, during one epoch, the nineteenth century, when Great Britain was the world's most powerful nation. Lucile Brockway examines how the British botanic garden network developed and transferred economically important plants to different parts of the world to promote the prosperity of the Empire.

In this classic work, available once again after many years out of print, Brockway examines in detail three cases in which British scientists transferred important crop plants -- cinchona (a source of quinine), rubber and sisal -- to new continents. Weaving together botanical, historical, economic, political and ethnographic findings, the author illuminates the remarkable social role of botany and the entwined relation between science and politics in an imperial era.

Customer Reviews:

An excellent book.......2004-09-04

This is an excellent book, very easy to read and covering the colonial economic botany (rubber, quinin, sisal) in a true apealing way.

Best book my mom ever wrote.......1997-07-31

The author was my mother. The book, based on her anthropology thesis, applied anthropological concepts to the sweeping GLOBAL influence and changes of Western colonization using the British empire as the model. Its a ground breaking book, easy and interesting to read (don't mind the implicit occasional politics). "The best part" (that's an inside family joke) is learning about the relationship between colonial expansion, Kew Gardens, rubber plantations, malaria, chinchona (sp?) and Gin and Tonics. I actually typed an early version of this chapter and couldn't have been happier with the content

Corn and Capitalism: How a Botanical Bastard Grew to Global Dominance

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Corn and Capitalism: How a Botanical Bastard Grew to Global Dominance
Arturo Warman
Manufacturer: The University of North Carolina Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0807827665
Release Date: 2007-01-17

Book Description

Exploring the history and importance of corn worldwide, Arturo Warman traces its development from a New World food of poor and despised peoples into a commodity that plays a major role in the modern global economy.

The book, first published in Mexico in 1988, combines approaches from anthropology, social history, and political economy to tell the story of corn, a "botanical bastard" of unclear origins that cannot reseed itself and is instead dependent on agriculture for propagation. Beginning in the Americas, Warman depicts corn as colonizer. Disparaged by the conquistadors, this Native American staple was embraced by the destitute of the Old World. In time, corn spread across the globe as a prodigious food source for both humans and livestock. Warman also reveals corn's role in nourishing the African slave trade.

Book Description

Scientific Commentaries by Grard G. Aymonin Originally published in 1613 by botanist-apothecary Basilius Besler, the monumental book known as the Hortus Eystettensis was, and is, the greatest botanical illustrated book ever created. With 367 plates depicting more than 1,000 species of plants, the book was spectacular even in black and white; the very few hand-colored copies are priceless. When Abrams issued its facsimile edition of Besler's great Florilegium in 1989, and followed that in 1994 with Hortus Eystettensis, featuring selected images, it became clear that there is great demand for a poster book of these irresistible botanicals.

Here, then, are 27 superb, oversize, full-color prints suitable for framing, including images of tulips, irises, roses, lemons, and artichokes. Gardeners and horticulturalists, print collectors and botanists, indeed anyone who simply appreciates the beauty of botanicals and wants to frame them or give them as gifts will enjoy this book.

27 illustrations in full color, suitable for framing, 10 1/2 x 14 5/8"

NICOLAS BARKER is former deputy keeper of The British Library.

GRARD G. AYMONIN is an eminent botanist and a professor at the Musum National d'Histoire Naturelle, Paris.

Customer Reviews:

Could have had a much better selection of prints.......2004-01-25

please pardon my strong opinion, but i consider myself a huge fan of the Hortus Eystettensis. the original book consists of 367 beautiful plates of which 27 are reproduced here. the reproductions are very nice and the prints are excellent, but the selection of prints leaves much to be desired in my opinion in that many of the most beautiful and showy prints that you would expect aren't reproduced while many of the much lesser prints are. obviously this is merely my opinion, but i was really surprised not to find many of the obviously gorgeous plates represented and in their place many of the far less interesting and beautiful ones. this selection simply does not do justice to the book it represents, and nowhere in this book is there any explanation of this selection (did the British Library not want the 27 "best" plates represented?). only 5 of these 27 prints would have made my favorite top 50 prints from the original. the plates reproduced here are #s 10,14,68,51,70,87,145,96,104,118,199,140,142,150,186,204,209,234,324,223,335,337,348,355,357,123,364. Taschen has a wonderful, reasonably-priced reproduction of the entire Hortus Eystettensis called "The Garden at Eichstatt" (and a pocket book selection of the same title) and Nicholas Barker has a wonderful book called "Hortus Eystettensis: The Bishop's Garden" which are highly recommended in place of this.

great for framing.......2001-05-11

The quality of the prints is very good and they are a good size. The price is good enough to buy 2, one to use to frame and the other for the coffee table. Great photos!!

Unbelieveable Value.......2000-07-11

This book offers 27 beautiful, botanical prints in a variety of colors that are ideal for framing. (Between my sister, best friend and myself we're framing 20 of the 27). However, if you are looking for a nice coffee table book keep in mind that this is paper-backed. Also, if you are interested in reading about botanical prints this book has little narrative.

Beautiful, frameworthy prints!.......2000-05-15

In the 1600s, the Prince-Bishop of Eichsttt, Germany created a stunning garden filled with flowers, fruit, vegetables, trees and pleasure-houses, at the center of which was his palace. His intention was to recreate the Garden of Eden here on earth, and he searched everywhere for the rarest and most lovely of plants to include. His endeavor was documented by some of the best artists of the time, who drew these beautiful botanical images, which then were printed on the largest paper then made, and bound into books. Only a handful of these were hand-colored, to be offered for sale to those whose pockets were deep enough to afford them.

The 27 images selected for this book are exquisitely printed, each measuring about 10" x 13". The colors are fresh and the paper stock has a beautiful, soft sheen and a good weight. These botanical illustrations are fine enough to be framed, and are useful as resource for the artist and designer.

Book Description

In recent years, our knowledge of the anatomy and physiology of olfaction has grown enormously, accompanied by a growing appreciation of scent. This is reflected in the fact that the 2004 Nobel Prize in Medicine was awarded for discoveries of 'Odorant Receptors and the Organization of the Olfactory System'. This book naturally supports such developments, and takes the reader on a fascinating fragrant journey around the world to some of the exciting places the author has visited during his 30 years of olfactory research. Following an introductory section to the world of natural scents, including their biological meaning and history, the fragrance and flavor chemist, Roman Kaiser, who is renowned for his 'headspace' analytical technique, revisits some memorable scents. In doing so, he leads us to such exotic places as Lower Amazonia, Papua New Guinea, India, and many rain-forest biotopes in his quest for new molecules and new scent concepts, showing us along the way how a scent like tatami can be linked to culture. The third and final section describes the analysis of the compositions of the presented scents.

Photosynthesis And Respiration (The Green World)

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Photosynthesis And Respiration (The Green World)
William G. Hopkins
Manufacturer: Chelsea House Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Library Binding

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Photosynthesis

ASIN: 0791085619

Nature's Government: Science, Imperial Britain, and the "Improvement" of the World

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Important history.
A brilliant history book
A Model of Scholarship!
Richard Drayton's Thrilling Read

Nature's Government: Science, Imperial Britain, and the "Improvement" of the World
Richard Drayton
Manufacturer: Yale University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0300059760

Book Description

Nature's Government is a daring attempt to juxtapose the histories of Britain, western science, and imperialism. It shows how colonial expansion, from the age of Alexander the Great to the twentieth century, led to more complex kinds of knowledge. Science, and botany in particular, was fed by information culled from the exploration of the globe. At the same time science was useful to imperialism: it guided the exploitation of exotic environments and made conquest seem necessary, legitimate and beneficial. Richard Drayton traces the history of this idea of 'improvement', from its Christian agrarian origins in the sixteenth century to its inclusion in theories of enlightened despotism. It was as providers of legitimacy, as much as of universal knowledge, aesthetic perfection, and agricultural plenty, he argues, that botanic gardens became instruments of government, first in Continental Europe, and by the late eighteenth century, in Britain and the British Empire. At the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, the rise of which throughout the nineteenth century is a central theme of this book, a pioneering scientific institution was added to a spectacular ornamental garden. At Kew, 'improving' the world became a potent argument for both the patronage of science at home and Britain's prerogatives abroad. Nature's Government provides a portrait of how the ambitions of the Enlightenment shaped the great age of British power, and how empire changed the British experience and the modern world.

Customer Reviews:

Important history........2002-08-01

Drayton's main point is to show the inter-relatedness of imperial control over nature and people. Natural sciences and political economy became related. That is, an understanding of nature's laws would help improve the administration of people and things/environment. Botany facilitated improvement ["a commitment to the reform of the world as a whole" p. 104], and improvement by the state justified empire.

He seeks to show this by concentration on Kew as a place where science and expansion converged (even while sitting at the very heart of the center. "What matters is Kew as an agent and product of modern history, as a space in which ideas about nature, economy, and legitimate authority interacted with concrete policies over Imperial Britain's nineteenth century." p. xvii. "From the 1780s onwards, however, it became a de facto national collection, to which seeds and bulbs were sent from every part of the world. More strikingly, Kew became a source of plants, and of gardeners, sent outwards to Britain's overseas dominions." p. 108.

He offers this summary: "Botanical knowledge, linked to the global transit of exotic commodities, had come to symbolize an imperium both rational and divine." p. 25.

"Systems of classification, as much as sextants and chronometers, allowed Europeans to perceive themselves as the magistrates of Providence, equipped by their knowledge of its laws with responsibilities over all of creation." p. 45. This knowledge justified their dominion. "British `improvers' moved, at home and abroad, in the faith that they ultimately knew better than those on the ground. Their confidence depended, in part, on the assumption that they possessed a more profound understanding of how Nature worked." p. 90.

Drayton wants to upset the idea of imperialism being simply the center imposing itself on the periphery, rather: "Over all, we should begin to conceive of European `expansion' as the colonization of Europe by extra-European interests." p. xviii The periphery changed the culture at the center: "Tropical nature [and its defiance of categories framed by the likes of Linnaeus] had again overthrown a system too provincial in its dependence on Europe..." p. 19.

Having superior knowledge justified exploitation of foreign lands despite natives, but it also justified conserving resources despite native demands when it suited the empire. These points are Drayton's most interesting for me (I could have used a lot more thinking about this-perhaps at the expense of stuff on personal politics in and around Kew).

Drayton insists botany pave the way for empire in a number of ways: knowledge and expertise lent legitimacy to foreign intervention (the enlightened know best), botanists themselves were local agents of empire, and knowledge allowed for redistribution of plants for profit in the center and around the imperial periphery.

A brilliant history book.......2002-04-11

This is one of the most exciting books I have ever read. It connects so many different strands of intellectual history, British history, and world history into one elegantly organized story which works over four centuries. It is packed with original arguments and suggestions-- almost too many, at times it is difficult to keep track of all the arguments that are in play at the same time. Drayton has a gift for keeping lots of balls in the air. It is the kind of book which leaves you feeling smarter in a dozen kinds of ways. I thought the conclusion was pretty prophetic about the world of 9-11.

A Model of Scholarship!.......2002-01-24

Drayton has penned a remarkable history and historical sociology of the planting of empire, science and of course, plants. A remarkable achievment, complemented by the high quality of production by Yale University Press. Highly recommended, even to those who might believe that they have no interest in either science or empire...deserves more than five stars!

Richard Drayton's Thrilling Read.......2000-09-06

Well, let's hope this is the first of many magisterial tomes from the pen of one of the brightest new stars of academe. Richard Drayton, a man who combines the wit of Mark Twain with the intellectual force of Aristotle, has produced a thrilling read that - like the writing of the great Alan Titchmarsh - reshapes the landscape of imperial history. Tremendous vistas. Striking and unexpected historical contrasts. I recommend it strongly.

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Plant Biotechnology (The Green World)
William G. Hopkins
Manufacturer: Chelsea House Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Library Binding

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ASIN: 0791089649

Lan's Plant (Reader's Clubhouse Level 1 Reader)

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Lan's Plant (Reader's Clubhouse Level 1 Reader)
Sandy Riggs
Manufacturer: Barron's Educational Series
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0764132873

Book Description

This is volume six, Reading Level 1, in a comprehensive program (Levels 1 and 2)for beginning readers.Two nine-book sets teach reading to children from preschool to grades K and 1, emphasizing phonics while also presenting a lively and engaging collection of facts and stories to make kids’ reading experiences enjoyable. Each title emphasizes one phonics family, the first five books in each set focusing on one vowel sound, and the remaining four books combining some vowel sounds or reviewing them all. Short vowel families are covered in Level 1 readers and long vowel families in the Level 2 books. Fiction titles feature attractive illustrations and have story themes ranging from funny to serious. Each fiction title also suggests a brief activity that allows kids to interact with the book’s subject matter. Nonfiction titles are photo illustrated, and include “Fun Facts” to enrich children’s reading experiences. The nonfiction books contain the basic elements of a nonfiction book, including glossary and index. They also suggest web sites appropriate to kids’ interests where more information about each book’s subject is offered. Both fiction and nonfiction titles contain word lists that group each book’s words into “decodable” words—those containing the book’s main vowel sound, which the book is either teaching or reviewing. Word lists also include high-frequency words and challenging words included in the main text. All books present a letter to parents and teachers explaining the fundamental concepts underlying both the series and the specific title. Level 1 readers are designed for classroom or home schooling use in preschool and kindergarten, and Level 2 readers for kindergarten and grade 1. “Lan’s Plant” is a story that covers the “short a and e” sounds.

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Plant Genetics (The Green World)
Carl-erik Tornqvist
Manufacturer: Chelsea House Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Library Binding

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ASIN: 0791085635

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