Silvey, Anita. The Plant Hunters.

Silvey, Anita.  The Plant Hunters.    Macmillan/Farrar Strauss    88p  $19.99 978-0-374-30908-4       elem/ms           VG           

Plant collection is not the innocuous occupation that many of us consider it to be, and this book illustrates this with a variety of botanical adventures ranging from ancient Egypt to present day India, emphasizing the 19th and 20th centuries.     

Primary sources provide the basis for this well-documented collection of tales of adventurers and scientific exploration that revolve around the acquisition of unique and valuable plants.  These adventures happen all over the world, and the reader learns not just about the plant collector and the plants, but also about the regions of the world they explore, as well as all of the tedium and organization involved in the process of exploration.  

The illustrations in the book are also primary sources for the most part, and include historical photographs, lithographs, and prints, such as the photograph of Ernest H. Wilson with "reformed headhunters and armed policemen" (page 29), and "Kangchenjunga from Singtam", a lithograph from the 1850s (page 38).  The book concludes with a timeline, an author's note, notes, a bibliography and an index.             --Lynn Fisher