Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #464976 in Books
• Published on: 1992-09-05
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 220 pages

Synopsis
Aimed at amateur and professional gardeners, this provides a practical working knowledge of the principles of plant life, including growth, organization, adaptations, environmental factors and reproduction. Solid scientific facts are combined with a readable text.

Customer Reviews

Excellent!
This was a subject I was keen to learn something about. So I did a quick search on the Amazon web site using key words "botany" and "introduction" and was presented with a list of 92 possible contenders. After reading a few of the synopses, and taking into account price, publication date and availability, Capon's "Botany for Gardeners" seemed like a good compromise. I was a bit concerned about the lack of reader reviews, but I thought I'd take a chance on it anyway. I'm glad I did, because this is an excellent - and thought-provoking - book.

Despite the fact that the book is little over 200 pages in length, and is packed with sketches, diagrams and photographs, it covers an awful lot of ground (see the synopsis and the publisher's review of the hardback edition for details). Although I thought the treatment was generally pitched at about the right level for the target readership, it is, however, quite demanding in places (eg, the final chapter on Strategies of Inheritance) and it requires some effort on the part of the reader to get the most out of it. I've read the book twice now and still feel I could learn more by reading it again!

The standard of photography is very high throughout. The microscopic images are particularly fascinating, eg the shot of a section of the growing tip of a root, showing a group of cells at different stages of the cell division process - you can actually see the clusters of chromosomes!

What really comes across from this book though is how fiendishly clever plants actually are! And - equally intriguingly - how much more there is still to be learned about even the most basic functions of the commonest varieties. For example, the hormone responsible for inducing flowering has still not been identified; the functions of some of the cell "organelles" are still not fully understood; why plants need certain micro-nutrients is still a mystery...

Everyone with an interest in gardening should know something about botany. This book will both inform and fascinate any gardener with an enquiring mind.

Book reveiw
I found this a very readable book which covered the basics of botany. Capon has an easy manner and I found the book very useful for my RHS examinations, both General and also Advanced. It was lovely to read a scientific book without falling asleep. I would recommend it to anyone interested in botany or plants in general.

Botany for Gardeners review
I have used this book for the RHS General and Advanced examination and found it very useful for both. It is extremely readable and clear and the photographs are excellant. I liked it.