Reviews (1)

Positively Brilliant.
Professor Wangari Maathai is truly one of the most important voices of our time. This dynamic and indefatigable Kikuyu woman of Kenya has illuminated rays of light through the dark clouds of Kenya, and so Africa. Standing in the face of oppression and unbearable adversity she faced when Kenya was not a land of freedom, but a state of oppression and discord, it was Wangari's resilient voice, her never-ending effort to stand strong in the winds of injustice, and her ceaseless love of mankind that has in many ways begun the great changes toward democracy and freedom for all individuals not just in Kenya, but in Africa. As the Cold War has, as Professor Maathai clearly and carefully points out, changed the dynamics of government in Africa, the reader becomes aware, in a different way than what is typically presented in the press, of the many issues involved with the challenges that the world faces through the daily experiences of those who seek `Freedom'. Clearly, as the world becomes closer and more connected, the issues that continue in Africa are critical issues that we, as a progressive society, must not simply acknowledge, but do something about. Acting on what is right . . . standing up for your beliefs . . . standing down oppression and hatred . . . and nurturing Mother Earth as she continues to nurture and provide for all, are themes this visionary African woman - who is the first African woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize - shares with the world in her brilliantly written life story. Readers across the world - men and women of all colors and creeds and beliefs will tap into the determination of this extraordinary activist who has taught so many about how love of each other can grow through respecting and nurturing the land we live on. But there is so much more to `Unbowed': Uhuru Park - Freedom Park - is more than a rolling green field in the middle of busy Nairobi, it is more than a starting point for this wonderful woman's love affair with the world, and it is so much more than a gathering point where the notion of planting trees . . . the seeds of The Green Belt Movement occurred. As Professor Maathai has shown through her own life, `Uhuru' is not Free! `Unbowed' is the story of a magnificent and courageous leader who stood up for the oppressed, including the woman of Kenya, and provided hope for better tomorrows by demonstrating that if a person possesses a will to make change, change can and will occur. `Unbowed' is a most remarkable memoir . . . and Professor Wangari Maathai is an ingenious woman of dignity the world continues to learn from. Listen: no matter where you are from, this book will positively change your life.
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Subjects:  1. Biography    2. Biography & Autobiography    3. Biography / Autobiography    4. Biography/Autobiography    5. Conservation Of Natural Resources (General)    6. Environmental Conservation & Protection - General    7. Forest Conservation    8. Kenya    9. People of Color    10. Personal Memoirs    11. Tree planters (Persons)    12. Trees & Forests - General    13. Women    14. Women conservationists    15. Women politicians    16. Biography & Autobiography / Personal Memoirs   

Editorial Review

Working in his garden one day, Michael Pollan hit pay dirt in the form of an idea: do plants, he wondered, use humans as much as we use them? While the question is not entirely original, the way Pollan examines this complex coevolution by looking at the natural world from the perspective of plants is unique. The result is a fascinating and engaging look at the true nature of domestication.Read more

Reviews (125)

Readable copy and interesting hypothesis.
A long book on botany if you are up to it. For a more compact and lively study try The Story of the Apple.

An engaging piece of practical history

A Three Hundred Page Sleeping Pill
I was given three months to read this book, and each time I picked it up I threw it down in disgust.Between the none-stop Johnny Appleseed referances to the Collegian's Guide to Growing Pot, it is amazing I got through it.I am convinced he was once a Columbian drug lord. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Ecology    2. Gardening / Horticulture    3. History    4. Human-plant relationships    5. Life Sciences - Botany    6. Nature    7. Plants    8. Plants - General    9. Science/Mathematics    10. Nature / Plants   

Reviews (1)

Everything you wanted to know about Trees
One of the most beloved and memorable of all popular poems is Joyce Kilmer's 'Trees'" I think that I shall never see/ a poem as lovely as a tree'/ A tree whose hungry mouth is prest/ against the earth's sweet flowing breast/.
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Subjects:  1. Essays    2. Natural History    3. Nature    4. Nature/Ecology    5. Trees    6. Trees & Forests - General    7. Nature / Trees   

Editorial Review

Over the past 16 years Swiss photographer Thomas Marent has traveled all over the world photographing rainforests, from Peru and Ecuador to New Zealand and Papua New Guinea. Usually traveling alone, Marent has been known to spend extraordinary lengths of time to get the perfect shot--sometimes 12 days. You can see the results in his first book, Read more

Reviews (3)

DK doesn't disappoint
Well I was ready to dish out some more money for another DK book.. Which I currently own Animal and Earth. I was planning on going with Plant next, but then I saw this one sitting there... I flipped thru it and knew right away this was the next DK book for me. Breath taking pictures of terrain, plants and animals from the rainforest. Not so much wording as DK's other books.. but the pictures are enough. Don't ever be afraid to buy a DK visual book.

Amazing book for parents and children
My [....] son and I stumbled across this book last night and we were absolutely captivated.He is currently studying plants in science and many of the photographs were of plants discussed in class.The photographs mesmerized both of us and we ended up buying the book.I stayed awake to the early morning hours slowly turning the pages as I saw plants and animals in ways I had never before seen.
A true gem
This book is one of the most spectacular collections of nature photography I have ever seen. The author spent 16 years traveling across the tropics, capturing with his camera the very essence of the rainforest ecosystem. Ranging from majestic panoramas of the forest to intimate portraits of birds and mammals (how did he get those wide angle portraits of monkeys?!) to fantastic close ups of invertebrates and mushrooms, this book explores tropical humid forest at all its levels. The message of this magnificent collection is clear - rainforests are the pinnacle of life on Earth, a jewel-studded crown of Nature; they are libraries of genetic and biotic diversity that must be saved at all cost.
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Subjects:  1. Individual Photographer    2. Nature    3. Nature Photography    4. Photo Techniques    5. Photography    6. Pictorial works    7. Rain Forests    8. Subjects & Themes - Plants & Animals    9. Trees & Forests - General    10. Nature / Trees   

Reviews (22)

Northeast Weed Bible
This book is absolutely the best on weeds of the Northeast. This is a must forthe library of every gardener or landscaper. It is easily readable, yet has the depth for those who need greater information about the subject. Easily, the most practical format, and it has a detailed index for cross referencing between the common and taxonomic. It also includes a chart on grasses.

Usefull reference book for weeds
I am a member of the Master Gardeners of Harford Co. Maryland.
Answers to "what's this? what's that?" but not all of them
I love this book!I had to have my own copy after seeing one in use at the Cooperative Extension's Master Gardener booth at last year's 4-H Fair.It doesn't ID everything that I find growing around my property, of course, and I definitely agree with S.C. Watson's wishes for information on edibility and invasiveness.Still, this is a terrific book.
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Subjects:  1. Canada, Eastern    2. Gardening    3. Gardening/Plants    4. Identification    5. Life Sciences - Botany    6. Nature    7. Northeastern States    8. Plants - General    9. Regional - General    10. Weeds    11. Horticulture    12. Northeastern & North Atlantic states    13. Pest control   

Subjects:  1. Flowering Plants (Angiospermae)    2. Flowers - Perennials    3. Gardening    4. Gardening / Horticulture    5. Gardening/Plants    6. Perennials    7. Pruning    8. Techniques    9. Gardening / Techniques    10. Gardening: plants   

Editorial Review

This is the be-all and end-all of mushroom books! Truly an encyclopedia of mushroom facts and lore, lavishly illustrated with full-color photographs, literally everything you need to know about mushrooms, edible or not. Arora has taught mycology for close to twenty years and has hunted and photographed mushrooms across the North American continent. Threaded through the book are his wry and humorous observations and comments, making what could have been a rather dull, "just-the-facts, ma'am" reference book into a really enjoyable read. The stunning photographs of the incredible variety of fungi are fascinating and eye-opening, and while the author gives clear and factual information, the mysterious allure of mushrooms in their countless shapes, sizes and colors is only increased by this huge and delightful book. --Read more

Reviews (29)

A Must Have
I am a biology teacher and own two tracts of woods.I bought two cheaper books thinking, foolishly, that I would then be able to identify most mushrooms.Cheap and thin is easy to carry in the woods, but this is the "mushroom bible" all naturalists should own.Arora handles a jargon rich science exquisitely.His use of humor in a virtual textbook takes away the thick book intimidation factor.Academia could learn a lot from David's style.I wish all the pictures were in color, but that would increase the price and thickness of the volume tremendously.I will add a few other field guides with color pictures for referencing. I now have a hard time believing there are still copies available for sale.I don't know who in their right mind would sell such a volume.I'll have mine until the end.

actually good beginner book
I love this book.
This Book Is Great!
After reading this book, I have a hard time reading other mushroom books.This one is just such fun to read!I subconsciously am looking for other mushroom books to be less dry and as funny as this one, but it just ain't happenin'.I really recommend this book both for the information it contains and the pleasure that you get from reading it. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. California    2. Gardening / Horticulture    3. General    4. Identification    5. Life Sciences - Bacteriology    6. Mushrooms    7. Nature    8. Nature/Ecology    9. Pacific States    10. NATURAL HISTORY, COUNTRY LIFE & PETS   

Reviews (5)

Best Plant Biol. book out there
I am a PhD candidate in Plant Sciences and I work with both applied and basic researchers who work on all aspects of plant biology/agriculture etc.Everyone I work with and myself included feel that this is the best single plant biology text. It is a few years old now so some of the mol. biology will be outdated, and a couple of examples have since been proven to be different than described in the book, but this is minor. This is for the adv. undergrad or graduate student and if you are a graduate student in plant biology you should have this book-it is very expensive, but nearly every post-doc/grad student I know has a copy. Get the hardcover it will hold up better.

Biochemistry & Molecular Biology of Plants
Mr. !!! Explanations not very comprehensive
The text covers a wide variety of plant molecular biology which is convienent. However the explanations are often very vague and do not connect with each other. When reading a paragraph you are often left with unanswered questions and the next paragraph may not connect with the previous paragraph at all. Not at all recommended for the beginner or undergraduate. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Life Sciences - Botany    2. Science    3. Science/Mathematics    4. Genetics (non-medical)    5. Plant physiology    6. Science / Botany   

Editorial Review

For the untrained observer, it can be quite a challenge to sort out the many trees that make up a stand of older forest in, say, New England or the Ozarks. This well-illustrated guidebook, covering 364 species, comes to the rescue with photographs organized in several ways: by, for example, the shape of the leaf or needle, by the fruit, by the flower or cone, and by autumn coloration. Following one visible characteristic or another, the reader can narrow the range of possibilities, then turn to an informative text that describes a tree's physical characteristics, habitat, and range.Many of the species covered are relatively rare, such as the "stinking cedar" of the Georgia-Florida border; others are locally abundant, such as the paper birch of the boreal forest, used to make ice-cream sticks; still others, such as the smooth sumac, are widespread. The guidebook also covers ornamentals introduced from other continents, such as the Chinese privet and Mahaleb cherry. Read more

Reviews (19)

Great for the Boy Scouts
This field guide is just what the doctor ordered for teaching young Boy Scouts about trees.The leaf and bark pictures are excellent, and the organization of the book is superb.Spend a few minutes going through the examples in the front as to how to most effectively use the guide.I was so impressed with this guide, that I went back and ordered another guide in the series that the Boy Scouts will find helpful - the guide to the night sky and constellations.

Great Book
We took this book on a camping trip last weekend in North Mississippi and were able to identify every tree that we attempted to.This is a VERY GOOD field guide.

What you would expect
I needed this book for my science olympiad team.It is exactly what you would expect from the Audubon society.Great colors, good quality, great examples. I ordered many other field guides at the suggestion from other teachers. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Canada    2. Identification    3. Nature    4. Nature/Ecology    5. North America    6. Trees    7. Trees & Forests - General    8. United States    9. Botany & plant sciences    10. Nature / Trees    11. Trees & wildflowers   

Reviews (8)

Remarkable... both a pragmatic AND scientific treatment
I have to admit, I did not know Paul Stamets was this generation's premier mycologist.After reading this volume, there is no doubt of it.He is objective, a true mycologist of the highest order, and a down-to-earth pragmatic steward of the environment.I have learned a lifetime of valuable information...both scientific as well as practical know-how from this book, (a rare feat).Not only does Stamets enthuse the reader with the miracle of possibilities in cultivating mushrooms for the environment, nutrition, (yes nutrition), and health benefits of Reishi and other mushrooms, he details how it is to be done, (by individual cultivators and/or commercial operations alike).
Wonderful Book - Mainly Steered Toward Growing With A Business Perspective
Wonderful Book - Mainly Steered Toward Growing With A Business Perspective.
A definite how-to encyclopedia for all backround readers
THis book will take from start to finish on the following subjects: Growing methods for each mushroom, growing media preparation, nutritional information, consumption information, purchasing sources, club sources, etc.A definite must read.Highly recomend it. Black and white pictures. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Gardening    2. Gardening / Horticulture    3. Gardening/Plants    4. General    5. Mushroom culture    6. Techniques    7. Cookery by ingredient    8. Mycology, fungi (non-medical)    9. Specialized gardening methods   

Reviews (6)

A lot of text but many unanswered questions
I take no issue with Christian Ratsch. He is a prolific writer and someone with influence in the world of ethnobotany. However, I want to write a valuable and honest review here. This book is enormous. I know of no other book worth buying that contains as many plants as this one (in relation to a mind enhancing context). In this regard, the book is highly valuable. There are also plenty of photos which give it an artistic quality.
All in one place.
Save time and research.This book is huge and packed.Has information on just about any natural drug source legal or not.This book is so big and packed full of information it would be hard to ever get tired of thumbing through this book.

Perfect
This book is absolutely essential for anyone interested in the topic of entheogens and their use/history. Buy it now! ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Anthropology - Cultural    2. Body, Mind & Spirit    3. Encyclopedias    4. Ethopharmacology    5. Healing - General    6. Herbal Medications    7. Life Sciences - Botany    8. Medical Anthropology    9. Nature    10. New Age    11. Pharmacodynamics    12. Plants - General    13. Psychiatry - Psychopharmacology    14. Psychotropic plants    15. Botany & plant sciences    16. Drug-induced states    17. Medical / Drug Guides    18. Pharmacology    19. Reference works   

Reviews (3)

Fantastic
Take a really dry subject and turn it into a book I couldn't put down!
Wonderful book for intuitive understanding of the subject
In the opening chapter, this book presents a wonderful simplified story of the evolution of plants, from a single cell to modern complex flowers.Both children and adults can gain a unique, intuitive understanding of this process from this explanation. My compliments to the author.He describes each plant family with interesting anecdotes and high quality line drawings.It's the first plant book whose lack of photographs didn't matter.Great tips for identifying families and individual plants have helped me enormously.Bravo!

Teaches the patterns method of plant identification
Any interested in plant identification should consider Botany In A Day: The Patterns Method Of Plant Identification as an important guide. Thomas Elpel (Director of Hollowtop Outdoor Primitive School, Pony, Montana) deftly teaches the patterns method of plant identification, providing a method for learning about groupings of plants based on the idea that related plants have similar patterns for identification, and similar uses. Black and white line drawings accompany descriptions of different plant families and their identification processes.
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Subjects:  1. Flowers    2. Life Sciences - Botany    3. Nature    4. Nature / Plants    5. Nature/Ecology    6. Plants - General    7. Plants   

Reviews (5)

Awesome!
Just bought this book about 2 hours ago, and put it down only to write this review. This guy is one heck of an artist. Taking Your Grass Care a Cut Above Where It Is Today!
Summary:Picture Perfect is the ultimate resource for those who want to add even more beauty and interest to their grass by growing and maintaining healthier turf and cutting it in original and beautiful patterns. WHAT AN AMAZING BOOK!
One of the first things I notice about people's homes is the way the lawn is cut. Some might say, "get a life," but to me the landscape design and lawn say a lot.From a psychological point of view, it says something about the people who live there, too!We have all seen lawns cut straight and perfect, every blade of grass precise, row after row - not much creativity there.We have also seen lawns cut haphazardly in every conceivable direction and length, a clump here and a clump there, as if the ride-on mower and its near-sighted rider short-circuited, jumped the fence and rode off into the sunset! Read more

Subjects:  1. Gardening    2. Gardening / Horticulture    3. Gardening/Plants    4. Landscape    5. Lawns    6. Plants - Grasses    7. Turf management    8. Turfgrasses    9. Architecture    10. Architecture / Landscape   

Subjects:  1. Dictionaries    2. Grasses    3. Life Sciences - Botany    4. Plants - Grasses    5. Reference    6. Science    7. Science/Mathematics    8. Botany & plant sciences    9. Reference works    10. Science / Botany   

Editorial Review

Much has changed in the role and use of ornamental grasses over the past 100 years. Whereas turn-of-the-century gardeners had perhaps a dozen perennial grasses to choose from, today's gardeners have hundreds. Ornamental grasses now embody a huge array of textures, forms, sizes, colors, flowering times, and cultural adaptations. Read more

Reviews (5)

Masterful, Encyclopedic Guide Full of Helpful Photos
Rick Darke's book is typical of his work. It is extremely well written, a detailed, very thorough guide to ornamental grasses, full of helpful pictures as well as information on growing and maintaining grasses. This book should be a classic for decades to come.

Absolutely Fantastic
This is such a wonderful informational book... AND ... a gorgeous coffee table book. It is terrific from beginning to end! If you like or are interested in, or even thinking about Ornamental Grasses ... then THIS IS THE BOOK FOR YOU! I can't imagine anyone who has an interest in Ornamental Grasses NOT LOVING THIS BOOK, and would be delighted they purchased it. My only concern is that it is going to look dog-earred from my reading it over and over and over again ... which frankly takes away from its beauty on our coffee table.

Buy 2 copies...
This book is structured, written, photographed and edited with parallel purpose and effect: communication of the author's respect and regard for the book's subject and for its readers. Mr. Darke sets out to inform and does so with enconomy but in full course; when he instructs, he teaches the novice and gives pause to the critic; when he photographs he shows his passion and inspires with the nature and wonder of his subjects. The book is encyclopedic, yet its prose is always to the point with the agreeable dryness of a good, well-bodied wine. Credible, trustworthy, enlightening. This is the best gardening book I have ever read. Negatives? Only one: Mr. Darke's standards are unimpeachable; those of the book's typographer and designer, however, are not. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Encyclopedias    2. Gardening    3. Gardening / Horticulture    4. Gardening/Plants    5. General    6. Grasses    7. Ornamental Plants    8. Ornamental grasses    9. Pictorial works    10. Plants - Grasses    11. Reference    12. Gardening / Flowers / Perennials    13. Gardening: plants   

Reviews (1)

An excellent textbook
Nelson's text is probably the most widely used on college campuses offering greenhouse management.It is up to date, full of technical information, and the chapters are well-ordered.Read more

Subjects:  1. Agriculture - General    2. Floriculture    3. Flowers    4. Greenhouse management    5. Greenhouses    6. Science/Mathematics    7. Technology    8. Technology & Industrial Arts    9. Horticulture    10. Technology / Agriculture & Animal Husbandry   

Reviews (5)

Nice Book
Well, this is a great beginner's textbook to Plant Physiology, especially when you have very little background in the field.(I major in Physics and took Plant Physiology as an elective.)The text is quite easy to understand, and there are great diagrams to complement the text.However, the text is getting a little bit out of date, as new plant hormones and genes are being discovered at a rapid pace right now.Overall, it was a pretty nice book for someone being introduced to the field.

an excellent review on plant physiology for students
I teach plant physiology at the University of paris. I have bought the first edition of this boor five years ago and I have bought the new one about one month ago. It was a concise, clear and well up to date documentedreview. I appreciate particularly all the section on bioenergetic andtransport in solutes in relation with morphology and development of theplant. I appreciate also very much the part on the influence of the lighteither for the classical phytochrome or to the appartition of the effect onthe blue light. Scheme are simple, but precise and well descibed. This bookwas a very good intermediate between books of pure biochemistry or puremorphology.All information is integrated and well discussed. In the domainof the plant physiology I think really on my knowledge that this book wasactually, in the domain of the plant physiology, one of the best review,and perhaps the better.

It is a useful tool for understanding plant physiology.
I teach plant physiology for biological sciences students in Bogot�, Colombia. I think this book is excelent. Also, it is written in a comprehensive English, and explainsclearly the principles of plantphysiology for everyboby including Spanish speakers. It is a very good wayto motivate undergraduate students with the knowledge in plant physiology.I would liKe to congratulate the authors. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Life Sciences - Anatomy & Physiology    2. Plant physiology    3. Science    4. Science/Mathematics   

Reviews (30)

Regional but excellent
Definitely a regional book.If you travel in N. Georgia up to New England, this is a must-have guide.The black and white line drawings do aid in identifying plants having structure and shape as the defining characteristic because light and shade of color do not come into play as they might in photos.As in birding, the preference for either photos or drawings is an individual one and, until Newcomb's landed in my library, I used photo guides for wildflowers but preferred drawn guides (like Peterson's) for birds.This is the book that changed my mind on that point.
Newcomb's Wildflower Guide
Two types of flower-identification books are available, those that use pure pattern recognition and those that require you to look at the flower. Pattern recognition books usually have pretty pictures of flowers arranged by color and then require you to search many pages to find one that looks like your flower. Newcomb's takes an alternative approach; it requires that you actually look at the flower. The key system is simple to use; for example, how many petals does it have, do the leaves alternate or are they on opposite sides of the stem, is it an herb, bush, or vine, etc. Only after narrowing down the possibilities extensively do you arrive at the pattern recognition stage and have only a few possibilities from which to choose. I have methodically found the names of several different flowers that I could not find even after exhaustive searches of other books. The book is not filled with pretty pictures, it is filled with information and excellent, simple line art.

Great Guide
If all the drawings in this book were in color, then this book would be hard to beat.I love this guide, but sometimes I have to reference a book with color pictures to be certain of an identification. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Climbing plants    2. Flowers    3. General    4. Identification    5. Nature    6. Nature/Ecology    7. Northeastern States    8. Shrubs    9. Wild flowers    10. Nature / General    11. Trees & wildflowers   

Reviews (17)

A Classic for Mushroom Cultivation
If you were to buy only one book on mushroom cultivation, this would be the best choice. It can certainly stand-alone in that it provides all the info the reader needs to cultivate mushrooms. Although psilocybian mushrooms are included these are by no means the exclusive or main focus of this book. For the most part, the book is concerned with legal edible mushrooms that can be grown in the home or yard. Absolute beginners can certainly start with this book and no other book will be necessary to provide all that the reader needs to know from beginning to end of the mushroom growing process.
mushroom cultivator a good buy
this book has lots of useful information about growing muchrooms
Usefull still
An older book, but its info is still very true. There are some more updated techniques out. However, it is surely a strong foundation for your mushroom cultivation knowledge, or just to satisfy your curiousity of how mushroom cultivation works. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Gardening / Horticulture    2. Gardening/Plants    3. General    4. Horticultural Crops    5. Mushroom culture    6. Mushrooms    7. Fruit & vegetables    8. Specialized gardening methods   

Reviews (7)

Nothing compares
I own and operate a nursery using both of these books as a primary resource when purchasing conifers from growers.When customers refer to these books at our library, they comment on how beautiful the many conifers are available.My only wish the book had w/b zone hardiness and growth habit.Buy it.ProGardens, Inc.East Amherst, New York.

Conifers : The Illustrated Encyclopedia (Two Volume Set)
Two world authorities compiled this outstanding conifer book featuring 2347 excellent, sharp photos reproduced beautifully on high quality paper.Each picture was taken at the proper distance to show the tree's outstanding detail.Captions are a sentence or two with location oftenincluded.For detail use a good companion book such as the Manual ofCultivated Conifers by Krussmann.Imperative for landscapers and a joy fortree lovers -- a bargain at the cover price.A quality bookclearly at the top of my list of favorites.

great book to figure out what you have growing in your yard.
pictures are great !!butlacks the necessary info on growing,care,climate zones&changes of sasons on the plants.but i love it for all it'svisual contents ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Conifers    2. Gardening    3. Gardening / Horticulture    4. Gardening/Plants    5. Ornamental conifers    6. Pictorial works    7. Reference    8. Trees    9. Botany & plant sciences    10. Gardening / Trees    11. Horticulture    12. Reference works    13. Shrubs & trees