Vistas in Botany features the study of life histories of plants, their development from spore or seed through vegetative phases up to the diverse phenomena of reproduction needs. This book is a compilation of studies and research conducted by several botanists that discuss topics such as the taxonomy general principles and Angiosperms; plant biochemistry; causal plant ecology; plant geography; cytology; genes, chromosomes, and evolution; viruses; bacteria; fungi; Bryophyta; Pteridophyta; Gymnospermae; and plant physiology. This publication is valuable to botanical specialists who wish to obtain updated knowledge in botany or phytology, and to students conducting research on the science of plant life.

“Pollan shines a light on our own nature as well as on our implication in the natural world.” —The New York Times “A wry, informed pastoral.” —The New Yorker The book that helped make Michael Pollan, the New York Times bestselling author of How to Change Your Mind, Cooked and The Omnivore’s Dilemma, one of the most trusted food experts in America Every schoolchild learns about the mutually beneficial dance of honeybees and flowers: The bee collects nectar and pollen to make honey and, in the process, spreads the flowers’ genes far and wide. In The Botany of Desire, Michael Pollan ingeniously demonstrates how people and domesticated plants have formed a similarly reciprocal relationship. He masterfully links four fundamental human desires—sweetness, beauty, intoxication, and control—with the plants that satisfy them: the apple, the tulip, marijuana, and the potato. In telling the stories of four familiar species, Pollan illustrates how the plants have evolved to satisfy humankind’s most basic yearnings. And just as we’ve benefited from these plants, we have also done well by them. So who is really domesticating whom?

"Provides vivid information about the history of plant exploration, migration, domestication, distribution and crop improvement"--

International Series of Monographs in Pure and Applied Biology, Volume 9: The Vegetation of Poland focuses on the plant geography of Poland, including climate, hydrography, geology, and ecology. The selection first offers information on the historical outline of the development of plant geography and the factors affecting the geographical distribution of plants in Poland. Discussions focus on the development of phytogeographical cartography, floristic and ecological plant geography, and the climate, boundaries, land-relief, hydrography, and geology of Poland. The text then ponders on the influence of man and his economic activities on the vegetation of Poland and the floristic statistics and the elements of the Polish flora. The publication examines the terrestrial and fresh-water plant communities and vegetation of the Polish Baltic. Topics include composition and structure of plant communities and methods of their study, associations of coastal and inland dunes, aquatic and swamp associations, and the most important representatives of the benthic flora of the Polish Baltic. The manuscript is a dependable source of data for botanists and those concerned with the plant resources of nature, including agriculturists, horticulturists, and soil scientists.

The original suggestion to organize a symposium about the classi fication and evolution of the Flowering Plants was made at, the International Botanical Congress at Leningrad in 1975, and the idea was so well accepted by several colleagues that plans for such a symposium quickly took shape. An organizing committee consisting of Professor H. MERXMULLER, Miinchen, Professor V. H. HEYWOOD, Reading, and Professor K. KUBITZKI, Hamburg, was set up. The conference took place on 7-12 September 197tl in the Institut fiir Allgemeine Botanik of the University of Hamburg under the auspices of the International Association for Plant Taxonomy and was at tended by 80 participants from 14 countries. There have been several meetings in recent years which have dealt with the origin and evolution of the Flowering Plants so that it might be questioned whether yet another symposium dealing with more or less the same subject were really "justified. As the reader will see from the contents of the book, this symposium differed from similar ones held recently in two respects: 1. Emphasis was given to methodological aspects of the classification of higher taxa, and 2. much classificatory and evolutionary evidence relating to the higher taxa of Flowering Plants was presented.