The Plant, Vol. 1

Observation of Nature’s phenomena inevitably reveals great wonders. Many more, however, in the plant world, are brought to light when observation is carried out on the basis of the principle of metamorphosis, first described by Goethe. Not only is the individual plant thereby given a new dimension, but new light is thrown on the “ladder of ascent” in the plant kingdom, from seaweed and fungus to tree and flowering plant.

Absorbing both for the specialist and general reader, Gerbert Grohmann’s book ranges from detailed descriptions of single plants to a relation of the plant kingdom to the whole earth—to insect and bird, to climate and altitude, as well as to human beings. A hundred well-chosen plates and lucid diagrams admirably illustrate the author’s argument throughout the text.