While much attention has been given to animal life in amber, the remains of a variety of plants, including angiosperm flowers, also exist in fossilized resin.  Presented here is a pictorial synopsis of 94 flowers that occur in four major amber deposits around the world.  These deposits are from Burma (Myanmar), the Baltic area, the Dominican Republic and Mexico, and range in age from the mid-Cretaceous to the mid-Tertiary.  The basic features of these flowers are presented and their relationship with existing plant lineages discussed.  This work will be of interest to amber enthusiasts, plant taxonomists, plant morphologists, plant ecologists, plant evolutionists and plant paleontologists. 

This manual was prepared for the diagnosis of insect diseases caused by infectious agents. The agents (or pathogens) included here are fungi, protozoans, bacteria, viruses, and rickettsias. The present work was prepared after much deliberation and discussion with students and teachers who felt a guide of this type would be valuable for diagnosing the microbial diseases of insects. It was modeled after a seminar given on the same subject at Berke ley, which had as its major goal the recognition and identification of insect pathogens for practical purposes. The present work in cludes numerous timesaving "short cuts" which were developed after years of experience of diagnosing insect diseases. Although emphasis is placed on identification, general back ground information on the various pathogens is also included. Thus, under each of the five groups of pathogens, the following topics are discussed: (1) various types of associations with insects, (2) defini tion and classification, (3) general life cycle, (4) characteristics of diseased insects, (5) factors affecting natural infections, (6) methods of examination, (7) isolation and cultivation, (8) important taxonomic characters, (9) tests for infectivity, (10) storage, (11) an illustrated key to the genera (or group in the case of viruses), and (12) literature, especially that pertaining to identification. Although often included with insect pathogens, entomogenous nematodes are not covered here since illustrated keys to those gen era that infect insects are already available (Poinar, 1975, 1977)."

George Poinar began collecting amber specimins over thirty years ago, but it was only recently that he, Roberta Poinar, and the rest of his research team astounded the scientific community with the news that they had obtained "live" DNA strands from an insect over 40 million years old. The news was so significant that it made headlines throughout the world. Since that time, their lab has remained extraordinarily active, and in the summer of 1993, they were able to announce the successful extraction of preserved DNA strands over 125 million years old. Thus, there is now DNA available for study dating from the early dinosaur period.In passages that read more like an Indiana Jones screenplay than a story about scientific research, the Poinars describe how what began as a hobby grew into a semi-obsession which ultimately led to a breakthrough scientific discovery. Along the way, they encounter all manner of unusual characters, from threatening black marketeers and gun-toting guerrillas to extraordinarily talented scientists, and of course, the luminously beautiful specimins captured in the still-life of amber.

While much attention has been given to animal life in amber, the remains of a variety of plants, including angiosperm flowers, also exist in fossilized resin. Presented here is a pictorial synopsis of 94 flowers that occur in four major amber deposits around the world. These deposits are from Burma (Myanmar), the Baltic area, the Dominican Republic and Mexico, and range in age from the mid-Cretaceous to the mid-Tertiary. The basic features of these flowers are presented and their relationship with existing plant lineages discussed. This work will be of interest to amber enthusiasts, plant taxonomists, plant morphologists, plant ecologists, plant evolutionists and plant paleontologists.