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Books > Science & Mathematics > Biology, life sciences > Botany & plant sciences
Although the problem of controlling the spread of exotic invasive
plant and animal species in the United States has been recognized
for quite some time, it has been lacking an adequate legislative
mandate, public awareness, and sufficient funding to meet the
challenge. This ACS Symposium Series title showcases the many
diverse efforts being made to control invasive species at the
federal, state, and local levels. It recognizes the global extent
of the problem and compares the methods used in other countries
with those of the U.S., and includes recommendations of how best to
proceed from here.
Flora of North America, Volume 3, provides information on many of the most familiar wildflowers and trees in North America. Included are treatments of the buttercup family (Ranunculacaeae), with such plants as delphiniums and columbines, and the poppy family (Papveraceae). Most of the important broadleaf tree species are covered, including the oaks (Fagaceae), elms (Ulmaceae), birches (Betulaceae), walnuts (Juglandaceae), plane trees (Plantanaceae), and magnolias (Magnoliaceae). Many striking families are covered, such as the dutchman's pipe family (Aristochiaceae), and the aquatic families Nymphaeceae (water lilies), and Melumbonaceae (lotus). Identification keys, summaries of habitats and geographic ranges, distribution maps, pertinent synonymies, descriptions, chromosome numbers, phenological information, and other significant biological observations are given for each species. The treatments, written and reviewed by experts throughout the systematic botanical community, are based on original observations of herbarium specimens, and wherever possible, on living plants. These observations are supplemented by critical reviews of the literature.
Sunday Times Bestseller 'A paradigm-smashing chronicle of joyous
entanglement' Charles Foster Waterstones Non-Fiction Book of the
Month (September) Are trees social beings? How do trees live? Do
they feel pain or have awareness of their surroundings? In The
Hidden Life of Trees Peter Wohlleben makes the case that the forest
is a social network. He draws on groundbreaking scientific
discoveries to describe how trees are like human families: tree
parents live together with their children, communicate with them,
support them as they grow, share nutrients with those who are sick
or struggling, and even warn each other of impending dangers.
Wohlleben also shares his deep love of woods and forests,
explaining the amazing processes of life, death and regeneration he
has observed in his woodland. A walk in the woods will never be the
same again.
Flora of North America, Volume 22, is the first of five volumes covering monocots in North America, north of Mexico. The volume comprises of many groups of aquatic plants and the North American relatives of groups that have their greatest number of species located in the New World tropics. These include: the rush family (Juncaceae); cat-tails (Typhaceae); spiderworts (Commelinaceae); aroids (Araceae), and pondweeds (Potamogetonaceae). This volume includes thirty families, representing a diverse range of plant forms from marine Zosteraceae (eel-grasses) to stately Arecaceae (palms), and the naturalised exotic Zingiberaceae (gingers), Heliconiaceae (heliconias), and Musaceae (bananas).
In this book Adrian Koopman details the complex relationship
between plants, the Zulu language and Zulu culture. Zulu plant
names do not just identify plants, they tell us a lot more about
the plant, or how it is perceived or used in Zulu culture. For
example, the plant name umhlulambazo (what defeats the axe’ tells
us that this is a tree with hard, dense wood, and that
usondelangange (come closer so I can embrace you) is a tree with
large thorns that snag the passer-by. In a similar vein, both
umakuphole (let it cool down) and icishamlilo (put out the fire)
refer to plants that are used medicinally to treat fevers and
inflammations. Plants used as the base of love-charms have names
that are particularly colourful, such as unginakile (she has
noticed me), uvelabahleke (appear and they smile) and the
wonderfully named ungcingci-wafika-umntakwethu (how happy I am that
you have arrived, my sweetheart!). And then there are those plant
names that are just plain intriguing, if not mystifying:
umakhandakansele (the heads of Mr Ratel), isandlasonwabu (hand of a
chameleon), intombikayibhinci (the girl does not wear clothes) and
ukhuningomile (piece of firewood, I am thirsty).
Andre Laurendeau was the most widely respected French-Canadian
nationalist of his generation. The story of his life is to a
striking degree also the story of French-Canadian nationalism from
the 1930s to the 1960s, that period of massive societal change when
Quebec evolved from a traditional to a modern society. The most
insightful intellectual voice of the nationalist movement, he was
at the tumultuous centre of events as a young separatist in the
1930s; an anti-conscription activist and reform-minded provincial
politician in the 1940s; and an influential journalist, editor of
the Montreal daily Le Devoir, in the 1950s. At the same time he
played an important role in Quebec's cultural life both as a
novelist and playwright and as a well-known radio and television
personality. In tracing his life story, this biography sheds
indispensable light not only on the development of Laurendeau's own
nationalist thought, but on his people's continuing struggle to
preserve the national values that make them distinct.
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