Living Plants of the World

One of the books which fueled my entwined passions for travel, exotic locales and cultures, handicrafts, storytelling, and horticulture. The Milnes cover all families of plants, sometimes very briefly, and all possible habitats as they describe their travels and the plants, trees, and flowers they've encountered. The book is structured chronologically, from oldest families to most recent, although even the most recent arrivals have been here far, far longer than anything approximating human existence. The most fascinating thing about this book is the wealth of stories it contains. The Milnes have clearly listened to people on their travels, and they share legends, cooking tips, folk wisdom, and amazing personal observations. This isn't some dry, arid textbook of botanical species, it contains a wealth of beautiful, evocative photos (lots of flower close-ups as well as landscape shots, many in black-and-white) and wonderful little anecdotes like how the "forget-me-not" got its name, a case of citrus-borne photodermatitis, and how the African baobab tree got its bloated, grotesque appearance. This isn't a coffee-table book for gardeners--indeed, it lacks practical advice on how to grow most of the species described in, say, southern California or the UK--but is perfect for those who love travel, nature, and who want to understand how the flora of the Earth is often much more fascinating than its fauna. You get a sense that the Milnes have been awed by nature and the imponderable forces of evolution. This is a book which forces us to reexamine our relationship with nature and decide for ourselves whether we are suitably awed by it.