This review is from: Flowers: How They Changed the World (Hardcover)
William C. Burger's "Flowers: How They Changed the World" is certainly a labor of love. His clear and enthusiastic prose transported me back to a course in botany I had at the University of Arizona around 1970. As a zoologist I had had little contact with botany, but I had always been interested in the subject. The course I took in botany opened up this fascinating world and I now remember the hours I spent in class and in hunting flowering plants in the desert as golden. This book brought all that delight back.
From the structure of flowers, through their function, defences, evolutionary history and history related to humans and other organisms, Burger has opened the door to an enchanted world. Yet it is the world just outside, in vacant lots, woods, meadows, tropical forests, agricultural fields, yards, roadsides, deserts and swamps- in fact almost anywhere.
A naturalist can find profound interest in the weeds, wild flowers and cultivated plants described here, and thus is almost never bored. I thus recommend this volume without reservation. It will open the reader's eyes to an absolutely engrossing subject and may give them a life-long passion.
2011.07.17 22:57:47
과학강국
오늘 종강에서 마지막 피날레를 장식한 책. 물고기책 보고 바로 이 책으로 넘어가야 할듯. 인간으로 오기까지 10가지 중요한 길목들이 열거되었는데.. 마지막 그 부분부터 봐야겠어요.
움직이지 않는 식물이 꽃과 열매를 통해서 동물을 유혹하고 자신의 번식을 확보하는 경이로운 생명의 공생관계를 알 수 있겠군요. 공생의 조화와 아름다움을 상상하는 것 만으로도 기분 좋은 일입니다.
Customer Reviews
(REAL NAME)
From the structure of flowers, through their function, defences, evolutionary history and history related to humans and other organisms, Burger has opened the door to an enchanted world. Yet it is the world just outside, in vacant lots, woods, meadows, tropical forests, agricultural fields, yards, roadsides, deserts and swamps- in fact almost anywhere.
A naturalist can find profound interest in the weeds, wild flowers and cultivated plants described here, and thus is almost never bored. I thus recommend this volume without reservation. It will open the reader's eyes to an absolutely engrossing subject and may give them a life-long passion.