Describes the journey of Lewis and Clark through the western United States, focusing on the plants they cataloged, their uses for food and medicine, and the plant lore of Native American people.

A treasury like no other Since the 1500s, scientists have documented the plants and fungi that grew around them, organizing the specimens into collections. Known as herbaria, these archives helped give rise to botany as its own scientific endeavor. Herbarium is a fascinating enquiry into this unique field of plant biology, exploring how herbaria emerged and have changed over time, who promoted and contributed to them, and why they remain such an important source of data for their new role: understanding how the world’s flora is changing. Barbara Thiers, director of the William and Lynda Steere Herbarium at the New York Botanical Garden, also explains how recent innovations that allow us to see things at both the molecular level and on a global scale can be applied to herbaria specimens, helping us address some of the most critical problems facing the world today. At its heart, Herbarium is a compelling reminder of one of humanity’s better impulses: to save things—not just for ourselves, but for generations to come.

A beautifully rendered reference guide to the Great Plains portion of the famous expedition through the American West highlights the explorer's remarkable encounters with previously undocumented flora and fauna as they moved through the Plains region. Original. (Biology & Natural History)

The Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia is home to more than 200 priceless specimens of plants collected by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark on their historic journey from 1803-1806 through what would become the western part of the United States. The dried and pressed plants housed in the Academy are virtually all that remains of the physical specimens brought back by the two explorers. These plants are historic treasures from an age in exploration and national growth that dramatically changed the United States. But they are more than museum pieces--the specimens are also scientific treasures to modern researchers studying the flora of North America. History of the Lewis & Clark Expedition The Plants in the Collection The Importance of the Collection.

First published in 1969, Lewis and Clark: Pioneering Naturalists remains the most comprehensive account of the scientific studies carried out by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark during their overland expedition to the Pacific Northwest and back in 1804–6. Summaries of the animals, plants, topographical features, and Indian tribes encountered are included at the end of each chapter devoted to a particular leg of the journey. This is the work for which the distinguished biologist and author Paul Russell Cutright will be remembered longest.