Esoteric Curiosities of the Plant Kingdom (Paperback, illustrated edition)

After Alexander von Humboldt, in 1804, had returned from his extended journey through the equinoctial regions of the New World and published his experiences under the title Aequinoctialgegenden des Neuen Continents, his contemporaries were as fascinated and enthralled as von Humboldt himself by his Natural Painting of the Tropical Countries (1807), by "cactic forms," "barrel trees," "mimosa ferns," and many other things which he had seen during his journeys and that were unknown in Europe at that time. Already, Humboldt found that "all animal and vegetable development is bound to fixed, eternally acting types which determine the physiognomy of nature." For this reason, the author starts his book with descriptions of the habitats of "rare plants," the tropical rain forest, deserts and semideserts, primeval Madagascar, and the boundary regions of plant life.
Although the author deals with giant trees, millennial plants, and other curiosities, he is not so much concerned to present, in word and picture, odd shapes and formations of plants that will strike the eye of the uninformed and nonbotanists, but he is much more anxious to point out those less conspicuous peculiarities that the layman will normally miss if his attention is not drawn to these items. Thus, the author presents in word and picture carefully selected examples of interesting pollination mechanisms, opening times of various flowers, Linne's floral clock, humming birds and bats as pollinators, ecologically and physiologically specialized groups of plants such as epiphytes, halophytes, rootless plants, parasites, and saprophytes as well as magic plants, witches' plants, and poisonous plants. Finally, the author deals withthe "fossil book of nature," showing that the present plant cover of the earth is the result of a development of many millions of years. Wherever you open the book, you will find "curiosities of the plant kingdom."
Text and illustrations will appeal not only to the expert but also to the amateur botanist, giving him valuable information for his roving expeditions in nature so that he may experience for himself all of those curiosities.