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Summary: fascination of flowers
Review: Anatomy of a Rose is solid science information presented with a dash of humour and an opportunity to know the author. I didn't know I was so fascinated with flowers until I read it.
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Summary: Excellent book for the lay audience....
Review: ANATOMY OF A ROSE: EXPLORING THE SECRET LIFE OF FLOWERS is slightly mistitled. The book has a few things to say about roses--a section on the scent of roses and a section about the commercial interest in concocting a blue rose. The subtitle best describes the contents of Russell's book--the secret life of flowers.I'm a plant/gardening/nature enthusiast who is fairly well read but I learned a new things from Russell's book. For example, I did not know that the great taxonimist/plant classifier Linnaeus (born in 1707) acquired his love of and interest in plants from his relatives. Seems his great-grandmother was burned as a witch because she knew too much about plants. Linnaeus fared better probably partly owing to his ability to read and write about plants in Latin. Russell has done a very good job of reviewing, selecting, organizing and distilling the current thinking on flowers --including the projected 7th Extinction which has already begun and will continue over the next 100 years. Like Rachel Carson's SILENT SPRING, this little book warns the reader. Russell says only one percent of the known flowers have been fully studied, and many will become extinct before we understand them. Flowers hold the key to saving lives, promoting good health, and ensuring the survival of the planet as we know it. Russell tells of the discovery of a plant extract that can fight EBOLI; the discovery of Taxol in the fungus of trees cut down for the Taxol in their bark (the implication is that a really smart person would harvest the Taxol, not kill the goose that lays the golden egg!!); and the uses of many of other plants for medicinal purposes. Pharmaceutical companies are beginning to take an interest in preserving the wilderness--or at least preserving it for their uses. The jury is still out on the affect of gentically engineered plants on other life forms. Gentically engineered corn has been empirically linked to the demise of Monarch Butterfly and too date it is not "off the hook" as another reviewer suggests, however, the "not knowing" is clearly an issue. We have much to learn from the flowering plants. I recommend this book to any one who wants to become familiar with the current outlook for plants as well as the history of plants and their role in evolution. You don't need to be a botonist to understand Russell's clearly written and elegantly told story of the flowers and their connection to our own lives.
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Summary: An Enchanting Read
Review: Certainly this isn't a book you would use as classroom material because of the style it is written in.
But it is that style that makes it so wonderful.
It is laced with beauty. The beauty of discovery about flowers and the beauty of the written word.
Filled with eloquent language and vivid description, this is a must read for those who love both flowers and literature.
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Summary: Anatomy of A rose
Review: I enjoyed this book so much because it made me realize that all the plants and animals have personalities that we should be more aware of. We do not fully understand the true meaning of nature and all its beauty but we should do all we can to protect it.
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Summary: The Little Book That Shakes Your World
Review: I found this little book extremely powerfull in changing the way I look at life....for the good mind you...it gave me an awareness and sensitivity to the natural world around me and an awe of what has come before and how we arrived here on this planet....
Reccomend for readers of all ages...even children can grasp the concepts put forth here and will open the eyes just a little wider for all who read it!
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Summary: I love this book!
Review: I thought I knew all the basics about flowers, but no. This book is packed with vivid images and great stories. It's full of surprises. The author combines a deep love of flowers, in-depth scientific knowledge and a wonderful sense of humor. A real gem.
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Summary: Examines how the plants evolved, survive
Review: Readers interested in the botany of flowers will enjoy Anatomy Of A Rose, a fine study, which examines how the plants evolved, survive, and how they interact with their environments. Roses aren't the only plants to be studied in this thoughtful presentation: all manner of flowers are considered in a lively tone blending science, scholarship and descriptive phrases.
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Summary: Science + Beauty = Flowers
Review: Sharman Russell uses poetic language to explore scientific technicalities of flowers and related natural elements. Some of the more interesting facts revealed in the narrative telescope into the author's personal experiences. Against the backdrop of scientific fact, Anatomy of a Rose explores deeper issues of ecological harmony, sacred aspects of culture, and survival of species. A fascinating read, even for the least scientific of readers.
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Summary: A reference reading !
Review: The flowers are somehow one of the multiple faces of the inscrutable nature . The admirable shapes enlist from the erotic orchid to the sunflower .
The poetry , painting , music , sculpture have empowered of them to magnify and heighten them . From Van Gogh to Rilke their sublime and brief presence has been inspiration motive to countless artists .
The author offers us invaluable appreciations about the flowers poetic .The similes described in the process of pollen ritual are true poems .
The flowers have drawings we can not see and reflect unthinkable colours .
If the flowers wouldn't exist from the human point of view , the world would be dead .
Acquire this singular essay , admirably well written and best expressed .
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Summary: Anatomy of a Rose
Review: This is a great book, full of fascinating natural history. The author shows her droll sense of humor at the same time as she presents the science. I was disappointed to find, in the last chapter, a repetition of the urban legend about corn pollen killing monarch butterflies. It would have been easy for the author to check and find that the monarch populations have been increasing since the introduction of genetically modified corn.
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