"The World in Your Garden"

I love used book stores, and found this book in Ophelia's Books in Fremont a couple weeks ago. For someone with a somewhat manic, sudden obsession with plants, and a fascination with travel and history, the idea of finding out how all sorts of common plants came to be where they currently are sounded like an exciting read. "The Adventure of Plant Discovery" (Chapter 1) indeed.

Even better, it's this vintage 50's book, put out by the National Geographic Society in the heyday of domestic, suburban America. I love the photos, which really conjure that 50's ambience--bright red lipstick, schwinn bicycles, sparkling smiles. Both endearing and disturbing.


It also has custom watercolor illustrations throughout, which attempt to conjure a sense of the various cultures and geographies the different plants come from.