A full-color illustrated guide to the natural history of the most poisonous plants on earth This richly illustrated book provides an in-depth natural history of the most poisonous plants on earth, covering everything from the lethal effects of hemlock and deadly nightshade to the uses of such plants in medicine, ritual, and chemical warfare. Featuring hundreds of color photos and diagrams throughout, Plants That Kill explains how certain plants evolved toxicity to deter herbivores and other threats and sheds light on their physiology and the biochemistry involved in the production of their toxins. It discusses the interactions of poisonous plants with other organisms--particularly humans-and explores the various ways plant toxins can target the normal functioning of bodily systems in mammals, from the effects of wolfsbane on the heart to toxins that cause a skin reaction when combined with the sun's rays. This intriguing book also looks at plants that can harm you only if your exposure to them is prolonged, the ethnobotany of poisons throughout human history, and much more. A must for experts and armchair botanists alike, Plants That Kill is the essential illustrated compendium to these deadly and intriguing plants. Provides an authoritative natural history of the most poisonous plants on earth Features hundreds of color illustrations throughout Looks at how and why plants produce toxins Describes the effects of numerous poisonous plants, from hemlock and deadly nightshade to poppies and tobacco Explains poisonous plants' evolution, survival strategies, physiology, and biochemistry Discusses the uses of poisonous plants in medicine, rituals, warfare, and more

'Trees are wildlife just as deer or primroses are wildlife. Each species has its own agenda and its own interactions with human activities ...' Written by one of Britain's best-known naturalists, Woodlands offers a fascinating new insight into the trees of the British landscape that have filled us with awe and inspiration throughout the centuries. Looking at such diverse evidence as the woods used in buildings and ships, and how woodland has been portrayed in pictures and photographs, Rackham traces British woodland through the ages, from the evolution of wildwood, through man's effect on the landscape, modern forestry and its legacy, and recent conservation efforts and their effects. In his lively and thoroughly engaging style, Rackham explores woodlands and their history, through names, surveys, mapping and legal documents, archaeology, photographs and works of art, thus offering an utterly compelling insight into British woodlands and how they have come to shape a national obsession.

Ancient Trees in the Landscape is the outcome of many years research into the history of trees in Norfolk, and represents the first detailed, published account of the ancient and traditionally managed trees of any English county. Yet it is far more than a regional survey. It is an exploration of how trees can be studied as part of the landscape. It discusses how accurately trees can be dated; explains why old trees are found in certain contexts and not in others; discusses traditional management practices and how these changed over time; and looks at the various ways in which trees have been used in parks and gardens. Above all, it considers how trees were regarded by people in the past, and how this has affected their survival to the present. Ancient Trees in the Landscape is a fascinating and original study which sets out a new agenda in landscape history. It will be essential reading for countryside managers and conservationists, and for all those interested in landscape history, arboriculture, and the history of the English countryside.

Out of the Woods takes you on a revelatory ramble through country and city - from woodlands of majestic oak and ash to mean streets lined with cherries. Containing myriad tips for recognition and rich in tree-biography and gossip, this book will enable you to tell your birch from your beech as you pass at 70mph, and will inspire even the most unreformed couch potato to pull on the wellies and brave the local park in search of the national treasures scattered all around us.

At the cabin, in the park or on a hike, keep this tabbed booklet close at hand. Based on Stan Tekiela's best-selling wildflower field guides and featuring only Midwest wildflowers of Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota and Wisconsin, the booklet is organized by color for quick and easy identification. Narrow your choices by color, and view just a few wildflowers at a time. The pocket-sized format is much easier to use than laminated foldouts, and the tear-resistant pages help to make the book durable in the field. Wildflowers of the Midwest features: Pocket-sized format--easier than laminated foldouts Detailed photographs with key markings More than 140 species found in the Midwest Easy-to-use information for even casual observers Based on Stan Tekiela's popular field guides

Roam the outdoors with confidence after using the author's invaluable Poison Oak & Poison Ivy Identification Technique. You will learn-that a substance to remove the allergenic oil from your skin is nearby wherever you are, and a great way to completely stop the itch for 4 to7 hours is already in your home."A fascinating read, full of little known facts. A keen eye for detail and an ear for a good story."-Tom Ogren, author of "Allergy Free Gardening."

This colorful Victorian book evokes an age gone by, before the days of email and overnight shipping, when communication between people was a very special occasion, made more difficult by time and space. To Victorian letter-writers of the West a new, exotic and secret language came from the East-communicating through flowers. The language of flowers became so refined in the nineteenth century that this dictionary was necessary. Using this source, one could send a message of reproach, passion, friendship, quarrel or a myriad of other sentiments singly and combined via a simple bouquet without ever penning a single word.

Fruchtbarer Boden wird mit zunehmendem Bevolkerungsdruck und wachsendem Nahrungsmittelbedarf immer knapper. Ein verantwortungsvoller Umgang mit dieser essentiellen Ressource ist daher dringend notwendig. Mit der Ubersetzung der erfolgreichen Bodenkunde von Rowell liegt nun ein praktisches Lehr- und Methodenbuch vor, mit dem samtliche Bodeneigenschaften gemessen und bewertet werden konnen. Neben den bodenkundlichen Grundlagen werden die Prinzipien der Messverfahren und deren Durchfuhrung ausfuhrlich beschrieben. Auswertung und Interpretation der Messdaten wird durch Rechenbeispiele und Ubungsaufgaben erleichtert. Mit den zahlreichen praktischen "Ubungen im Feld" lassen sich die Labormethoden auch ohne aufwendige Mittel direkt in die Praxis ubertragen."

Meadows, the second volume of a major new series of books on British natural history, provides one of the most wide-ranging and eloquent treatments of this most quintessential British habitat. Yet the flower-rich hay meadows that have inspired writers and artists for hundreds of years have almost disappeared from our countryside. In this exceptional work, George Peterken, one of our most respected ecologists, brings together years of research and discovery from his travels across Britain and Europe, as well as an understanding borne out of caring for his own meadows, to produce a book that will put this often misunderstood habitat back in the public's eye. Filled with beautiful images of meadows and their denizens, this is a book everyone with an interest in this iconic habitat will want to own.

Naturalists, birders, students, teachers, conservationists, environmental consultants, wildlife biologists and botanists--amateur and professonal alike--will find this picture book of plant anatomy to be an invaluable reference alongside local floras and field guides.
"620 Wild Plants of North America "describes, in beautiful detail, the characteristic features of 89 families of vascular plants--including trees, shrubs, vines, wildflowers, grasses, sedges, horsetails, and club-mosses--using labeled ink drawings, text and range maps. The author's drawings are from plants in the field and freshly picked specimens. The text outlines habitat, flowers, fruit, seeds, leaves and stems. The range maps cover central North America from the three Prairie Provinces south to northern Texas and from Iowa west to Idaho. With its detailed, labeled drawings, "620 Wild Plants" opens the door to understanding the unique morphological features of plants in all of the major families represented in the flora of central North America.
Includes: over 5,000 detailed, labeled line drawings; scientific names, including synonyms, and common names; detailed descriptions of habitat, flowers, leaves and stems; range maps for the northern Great and Central Plains; glossary, reference list and index.

WILDFLOWERS AS THEY GROW
A delightful book of wildflower illustrations of plants of the Rocky Mountain chain. An Artist's work of 18 years duration worked in watercolor from the live plants.

This practical pocket field guide, published in association with the Wildlife Trusts, includes more than 160 species of trees from Britain and the near Continent. Each species account contains accurate artworks that show details of mature trees, leaves, growth patterns and other interesting features. A concise written account outlines further essential information, such as size, description, habitat, and distribution to help you identify trees. The easy-to-follow layouts and illustrations help in quick and precise identification, making this book an invaluable reference source. It is compact enough to fit in the pocket, yet packed with essential information for the natural history enthusiast.

With gorgeous full-color illustrations, ornate decorative elements, lettering in metallic ink, and engaging text, The Language of Flowers: A Fully Illustrated Compendium of Meaning, Literature, and Lore for the Modern Romantic is a treasure for flower lovers. A sumptuous, contemporary anthology of 50 of the world's most storied and popular flowers, each of its entries offers insight to the meaning associated with the flower, and is a fascinating mix of foklore, classic mythology, literature, botanical information and popular culture. Following an introduction that provides a short history of the language of flowers, a fad which reached its peak during the reign of Queen Victoria, each uniquely illustrated and designed entry is an enjoyable read full of history and little-known facts. Here is the story of Tulipmania; how the pansy got its "face," and why the most particular pollination process of a certain orchid has made the vanilla bean a very dear commodity. You'll also dicover how Christian Dior's passion for lily of the valley inspired his classic perfume Diorissimo and its extraordinary bottle; why Oscar Wilde had a penchant for wearing green carnations in his lapel; and how Greeks and Romans believed snapdragons could ward off witchcraft, so they planted them at entryways to their homes. With more than a dozen two-page paintings evoking the romance of noteworthy Victorian gardens and symbolic bouquets, a cross-referenced index of flowers and meanings, and suggestions for further reading, this book is a must for lovers of floriology and Victoriana.

When you're in the wild and you spot a nice-looking mushroom, how do you know if it is safe to eat? Question no more with the "The Pocket Guide to Wild Mushrooms." This tiny companion is the perfect book to bring along when foraging for delectable fungi. Inside its neatly arranged pages are fifty-two edible mushrooms as well as the mushrooms with which they are often confused, whether edible or toxic.
Beautiful photographs adorn the pages with mushrooms in the wild as well as picked, showing them from a multitude of angles. Study these photographs and you will become adept at recognizing edible and safe mushrooms. Even those who are unfamiliar with the mushroom forest can make a start at foraging with this instructional work, and, with the help of "The Pocket Guide to Wild Mushrooms," can become experts in no time.
Using practical symbol systems, distribution maps, and tips on picking, cleaning, cooking, and canning, the reader will also become familiar with a wide variety of wild mushrooms, including morels, black trumpets, chanterelles, sheep polypore, porcini, a variety of boletes, and many more. Grabbing this guide on the way out to go hunt for mushrooms will ensure a successful foraging experience.

More than a field guide, ""Mountain Wildflowers of the Southern Rockies"" offers cultural and botanical essays that present useful and fascinating facts about seventy-five species of wildflowers, including strategies for survival, plant evolution, origins of common and scientific plant names, family characteristics, and their roles in human history. The Laramie and Medicine Bow Mountains of southern Wyoming, the principal ranges in Colorado, and the Sangre de Cristo, Jemez, and Sandia Mountains in New Mexico are home to over a thousand species of wildflowers. The striking samples included here were selected not only because they are characteristic of this region, but also because they have interesting stories to tell. Grouped by family and arranged in natural order, each featured profile is accompanied by a color photo and most include a drawing by wildflower artist Walter Graf.

The first book ever on the much maligned nettles of the world presents a story of these followers of mankind and his cattle throughout history. This study centres on the most abundant and sub-cosmopolitan common stinging nettle (Urtica dioica), but also deals with other nettles throughout the world. Tropical tormentors rich in species include the notorious nettle trees with their formidable stings which fascinated the Europeans after their discovery by botanists on the round-the-world trips of exploration in the 17-19th centuries. Many people on their travels will have met the nettle trees of the Indo-Malay region and other stinging nettles in North and South America, India, etc., which sting and have beautiful flowers but are called nettles; these are also dealt with. The first microscopists and their descriptions of the beautiful stinging hair; the uncovering of the mechanism of its action and the more recent elucidation of the toxins causing the characteristic symptoms is a fascinating one and takes up 3 chapters.
The book includes the 100 major scientific works published on the common stinging nettle and never brought to the notice of the general public before. The author spent six years studying the ecology of the nettle patch, its invertebrate herbivores (mainly insects) and vertebrate herbivores (cattle, deer, etc., ) and their interactions with other plants: its secret life is recorded in line drawings and photographs (1000+ individual items). It was not possible to publish these in colour but they are in full colour on a CD-ROM (300 dpi) at the back of the book. Covered also are nettle folklore, fibre use in World War I & II, as a food, fodder, herbal medicine, growth as acompetitor plant, habitats, sex (unique exploding stamens), breeding systems, variation, evolution etc. Some the world's most beautiful butterflies would not exist without nettles.

Trees mirror in many ways the life cycle of human beings: they are born from seed, they breathe and drink, they grow to maturity, reproduce and eventually die from age or disease. Their branches, roots and the veins of their leaves resemble human blood vessels, and certain species even ooze a reddish, blood-like sap when damaged.From ancient times, people appreciated the spiritual value of trees, singling out individual trees for special veneration. In Ireland the roots of tree worship reach deep into pagan Celtic religion and spirituality. Christine Zucchelli looks at these trees, from Fairy Thorns to Rag Trees, from Mass Bushes to Monument Trees. This fascinating exploration of their stories and legends reveals their spiritual, social and historical functions from pagan times to the present.

Originally published in 1936, this book is a detailed guide to the cultivation of the mushroom. Full of detailed information and instruction on growing and harvesting, this book is still of great practical use to today's grower. Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. Hesperides Press are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork. Contents Include : Introduction - The Nature of the Mushroom - Site and Soil - Buildings - Manures - Spawns - Making up Beds - Care of Beds - Diseases and Pests and Their Control - Picking and Packing - Exhibiting - Some Companion Crops - Marketing and Costings - Cooking Recipes