A complex and fiercely contemporary tale of inheritance, enlightenment, life, death, desire and family trees, The Seed Collectors is the most important novel yet from one of the world's most daring and brilliant writers. Great Aunt Oleander is dead. To each of her nearest and dearest she has left a seed pod. The seed pods might be deadly, but then again they might also contain the secret of enlightenment. Not that anyone has much time for enlightenment. Fleur, left behind at the crumbling Namaste House, must step into Oleander's role as guru to lost and lonely celebrities. Bryony wants to lose the weight she put on after her botanist parents disappeared, but can't stop drinking. And Charlie struggles to make sense of his life after losing the one woman he could truly love. As Henry James said of George Eliot's Middlemarch, The Seed Collectors is a "treasurehouse of detail" revealing all that it means to be connected, to be part of a society, to be part of the universe and to be human.

Aunt Oleander is dead. In the Garden of England her extended family gather to remember her, to tell stories and to rekindle old memories. To each of her nearest and dearest Oleander has left a precious seed pod. But along with it comes a family secret that could open the hardest of hearts but also break the closest ties.

Seed Biology: Insects, and Seed Collection, Storage, Testing, and Certification, Volume III brings together a large body of important information on seed biology. The book describes seed collection, identification, storage, testing, and certification. It also considers insects that directly affect seeds, seed-producing organs, or seed-bearing structures of plants. Organized into six chapters, this volume begins by outlining man's dependency on seeds as source of food, fiber, spices, beverages, oils, vitamins, and drugs. Harmful effects of seeds are also mentioned. Separate chapters focus on seed development, dissemination, germination (including metabolism, environmental control, internal control, dormancy, and seed and seedling vigor), protection from diseases and insects, longevity, and deterioration. The book concludes with a discussion on the certification of field and tree seeds, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development certification schemes, and trends in seed certification. This book is a valuable source of information for seed producers and users as well as various groups of research biologists and teachers, including agronomists, plant anatomists, biochemists, ecologists, entomologists, foresters, horticulturists, plant pathologists, and plant physiologists.