Presented in A-to-Z format, supplemented with easy-to-use charts and lists, beautifully illustrated with drawings and color photographs, it is the only book on herbs you ever need to buy.

    Unsurpassed as a field guide for its authoritative information on collection and medicinal preparation. Focuses on the plant life of rocky and arid lands of the West, and includes detailed information on the preparation and use of these vital herbs.

    Going right up to the present day, and including both natural and man-made features, it demonstrates the sometimes subtle, sometimes radical ways in which people, flora, fauna, climate, soils, and other physical conditions have played a role in shaping the landscape. "...quirky and rewarding...full of answers to questions that others have not had the wit to ask."--Economist. "One thing is certain: no one would be wise to write further on our natural history...without thinking very hard about what is contained in these authoritative pages."--Country Life.

    Over 1,100 species and their propagation requirements by seeds, cuttings, grafting and budding, and tissue culture are discussed in exhaustive detail. Essentially a recipe book for making more trees and shrubs, this reference is a high-level how-to.

    In handsome color spreads, each tree is pictured as it would appear in a typical landscape, with each of its features -- such as seasonal changes, leaf shape, flowers, seeds, bark -- illustrated in fine detail and clearly labeled. Written by world renowned dendrologist Alan Mitchell and illustrated by noted tree artist David More, Trees of North America will delight the naturalist and the gardener as both an authoritative reference work and a tribute to the rich variety of trees on our continent.

    Over five hundred years of maps depicting the North Pacific Ocean and the lands that border it—the United States, Canada, Alaska, Russia, Japan, Korea, and China—have been collected into this new atlas. From antique maps of the sixteenth century to modern satellite images, this volume covers all the major explorations, such as Magellan, Bering, Cook, and Vancouver; Perry's opening of Japan; and the U.S. North Pacific Exploring Expedition. It also includes modern maps that use the latest technology to show ocean currents, fault lines, and the seabed in astounding detail.

    In over 20,000 entries this comprehensive dictionary provides information on every family and genus of seed-bearing plant (including gymnosperms) plus ferns and other pteridophytes, combining taxonomic details with invaluable information on English names and uses. In this new edition each entry has been updated to take into consideration the most recent literature and over 2,500 new entries have been added, ensuring that The Plant-Book continues to rank among the most practical and authoritative botanical texts available.

    

    Unfortunately, modern American culture has not paid much attention.White settlers did learn a few plant-based remedies from the Indians, and a few prairie plants were prescribed by frontier doctors. A couple dozen prairie species were listed as drugs in the U.S. Pharmacopeia at one time or another, and one or two, like the Purple Coneflower, found their way into the bottles of patent medicine.But in both the number of species used and the varieties of treatments administered, Indians were far more proficient than white settlers. Their familiarity with the plants of the prairie was comprehensive--there probably were Indian names for all prairie plants, and they recognized more varieties of some species than scientists do today. Their knowledge was refined and exact enough that they could successfully administer medicinal doses of plants that are poisonous. All of the species used by frontier doctors were used first by Indians.In Medicinal Plants of the Prairie, ethnobotanist Kelly Kindscher documents the medicinal use of 203 native prairie plants by the Plains Indians. Using information gleaned from archival materials, interviews, and fieldwork, Kindscher describes plant-based treatments for ailments ranging from hyperactivity to syphilis, from arthritis to worms. He also explains the use of internal and external medications, smoke treatments, moxa (the burning of a medicinal substance on the skin), and the doctrine of signatures (the belief that the form or characteristics of a plant are signatures or signs that reveal its medicinal uses). He adds information on recent pharmacological findings to further illuminate the medicinal nature of these plants.Not since 1919 has the ethnobotany of native Great Plains plants been examined so thoroughly. Kindscher's study is the first to encompass the entire Prairie Bioregion, a one-million-square-mile area bounded by Texas on the south, Canada on the north, the Rocky Mountains on the west, and the deciduous forests of Missouri, Indiana, and Wisconsin in the east. Along with information on the medicinal uses of prairie plants by the Indians, Kindscher also lists Indian, common, and scientific names and describes Anglo folk uses, medical uses, scientific research, and cultivation. Descriptions of the plants are supplemented by 44 exquisite line drawings and over 100 range maps.This book will help increase appreciation for prairie plants at a time when prairies and their biodiversity urgently need protection throughout the region.

    Resurrect the forgotten art of the formal garden, full of elegance and enchantment, even in the smallest backyards. Intimate and complex or simple and streamlined, these 24 arrangements--worthy of a king but suitable everywhere--share such wonderfully theatrical devices as a mirror-image pair of beds or ornamental focal points to draw the eye along a vista. Once you understand the principles behind the grand style, you'll find them surprisingly easy to implement and to maintain--and every scheme comes with a ground plan, three-dimensional drawings, and a wealth of alternative suggestions and planting ideas. And, with such classic features as rose-covered pergolas, twists of topiary, apple tunnels, and scalloped hedges, they all bring year-round satisfaction.

    Common names and their variations, as well as standard botanical classification and nomenclature, are given for all flowers. A Ready Identification Chart lists the flowers by their distinctive features and facilitates identification of all the flowers represented and their related species. A detailed Glossary provides full explanation of botanical terms.This encyclopedic work is based on an authoritative publication of the Smithsonian Institution: The Mary Vaux Walcott color plates in this book are reproduced by permission from the famous portfolio set “ North American Wild Flowers” by Mary Vaux Walcott as published by the Smithsonian Institution. The magnificent and completely accurate paintings, which are accorded top-ranking by artists as well as botanists throughout the country, have been supplemented by additional paintings by Dorothy Falcon Platt.

    Hal Borland, a well-known nature writer, introduces the legends, symbolism and history of the traditional Christmas plants. 14 full-color illustrations.