Having watched the growth of Plant Biographies over
the last 15 years or so, I am delighted that it is now available
for general consultation.
I spent 16 years as
a botanist at the Royal Horticultural Society’s
Garden at Wisley, Surrey, UK, answering plant-related questions
from the public. I had to trawl for hours through a wide
range of books and other sources to find the kind of information
available here at the click of a mouse.
To have gathered so many facts and figures together is a huge
achievement which I am sure will be greatly appreciated by everyone,
from students and school children to quiz setters, librarians,
crossword fanatics and gardeners - in fact anyone with an interest
in plants and their links with people and the planet.
As a specialist bookseller I am aware of the constant
demand for books which deal with plants in the arts, in literature,
in cookery and herbalism, medicine and pharmacy - the huge
spread of man/plant inter-relationships.
We were once privileged to deal with the library of
Anthony Huxley - a huge collection of nearly eight thousand
volumes. And if there was one thread which linked his
interests, it was the effect of man on plants and of plants
on man. How impressed he would have been with Sue Eland’s Plant
Biographies ? And how much fun, knowledge and information
he would have gleaned from it ?
This store-house of botanical and horticultural
facts, continuously updated, a labour of love if ever there
was one, is now available to everyone. I heartily recommend
it. But I seriously worry that you may never need to
buy a book again !
Mike Park Ltd
351 Sutton Common Road
Sutton
Surrey
SM3 9HZ
U.K.
Tel : 020 8641 7796
Fax : 020 8641 3330
e-mail : mikeparkbooks@aol.com
Plant Biographies is
the result of many years painstaking work by Sue Eland who
has produced a work of such dimension that it requires a modern
technology to do justice to it. Electronic publishing means
that it can be published in full. It also simplifies access
and cross-referencing. Any
future updating will be able to be carried out quickly and
comprehensively.
The author has researched and pulled together a vast body of information about
plants drawing on a large number of sources. Having so much data available provides
a good basis for study and comparison and will be a useful reference, and a starting
point for further study for many grateful users.
Francesca Greenoak
Editor The Alexander Journal
4 Wood Row
Wigginton
Tring
Hertfordshire HP23 6HS
francesca@fgreenoak.com
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