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In 1837, while charting the Amazonian country of Guiana for Great Britain, German naturalist Robert Schomburgk discovered an astounding "vegetable wonder"--a huge water lily whose leaves were five or six feet across and whose flowers were dazzlingly white. In England, a horticultural nation with a mania for gardens and flowers, news of the discovery sparked a race to bring a live specimen back, and to bring it to bloom. In this extraordinary plant, named Victoria regia for the newly crowned queen, the flower-obsessed British had found their beau ideal. In The Flower of Empire, Tatiana Holway tells the story of this magnificent lily, revealing how it touched nearly every aspect of Victorian life, art, and culture. Holway's colorful narrative captures the sensation stirred by Victoria regia in England, particularly the intense race among prominent Britons to be the first to coax the flower to bloom. We meet the great botanists of the age, from the legendary Sir Joseph Banks, to Sir William Jackson Hooker, director of the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, to the extravagant flower collector the Duke of Devonshire. Perhaps most important was the Duke's remarkable gardener, Joseph Paxton, who rose from garden boy to knight, and whose design of a series of ever-more astonishing glass-houses--one, the Big Stove, had a footprint the size of Grand Central Station--culminated in his design of the architectural wonder of the age, the Crystal Palace. Fittingly, Paxton based his design on a glass-house he had recently built to house Victoria regia. Indeed, the natural ribbing of the lily's leaf inspired the pattern of girders supporting the massive iron-and-glass building. From alligator-laden jungle ponds to the heights of Victorian society, The Flower of Empire unfolds the marvelous odyssey of this wonder of nature in a revealing work of cultural history.
This book is a stunningly beautiful record of the nation's biggest springtime festival. As the 100th anniversary of the National Cherry Blossom Festival approaches in the Spring of 2012, millions of people from across the country will gather to revel in the beauty of the Cherry Blossoms. Capturing the true essence of spring, Blunt's striking photography will also allow those who are unable to travel to the festival the chance to experience the splendor of the blooming cherry blossoms through his photography.
A revelatory and groundbreaking account of Imperial Japan’s kamikaze—the suicide pilots of World War II—as told through the eyes of the survivors In the final year of World War II, a horrific new weapon was unleashed in the Pacific: the kamikaze. Idealistic, young Japanese men had been taught that there was no greater glory than to sacrifice one’s life to defend the homeland. Now, with the war all but lost, thousands of these determined warriors were hastily trained in the basics of piloting an airplane, then sent out in waves to crash into enemy warships, suicide attacks that killed altogether some seven thousand American sailors. But what of those men who took the sacred oath to die in battle and lived? In the wake of 9/11, ethnographer M. G. Sheftall was given unprecedented access to the cloistered community of Japan’s last remaining kamikaze survivors. As an American fluent in Japanese, Sheftall was the only westerner to ever sit face-to-face with these men and hear their stories. The result is a fascinating journey into the lives, indoctrination, and mindsets of the kamikaze, through the eyes of participants who are now lost to time.
How do plants, even if still buried underground, know that it's their time to bloom? What signals them to begin the challenging task of making flowers, and how do they make the variety of flower shapes, colours, and scents? What kind of instructions does the plant carry? Flowers enrich the beauty of meadows and gardens, but of course, they are not there simply to please us. Biologically, blossoms form a critical aspect of the reproductive cycle of many plants. In this book, the distinguished scientist Maxine Singer explains what we have pieced together about the genetics behind flowering. She describes in a clear and accessible account the key genes which, regulated by other genes, modulated by epigenetic effects, and responding to environmental cues, cause plants to flower at a particular time, and define the variety of flowers. The remarkably intricate processes involved in making flowers have evolved in nature alongside the pollinating birds and insects that the flowers must attract if there is to be another generation. The processes involved in flowering have only been unravelled in the past twenty years, and the implications for ensuring production of food, including fruits and seeds, are profound. This is cutting-edge science, and we have much still to learn, but the story being revealed that lies behind the flowers in our gardens, parks, and fields is proving astonishing.
Ulysses, a middle-aged widower, is forced into early retirement from his moving job. At a loss for what to do next, the course of his life is changed by a chance encounter with a fellow lonely soul at, of all places, his son's OB/GYN office. Mediterranea, who recently lost her mother, runs a cheese shop that she took over when her beloved Corsican father died years earlier. A romance blossoms between these two people who are supposedly in the "autumn" of their lives and they soon find themselves embarking on a most unexpected odyssey.
From the smallest seeds to the tallest trees, this beautiful children's guide is a must-have for any budding botanist or plant lover. We can't live without plants. We need them for food, shelter, even the air we breathe, yet we know surprisingly little about them. Why do thistles bristle with spines? How do some plants trap and eat insects? Did you know there are trees more than 5,000 years old? Trees, Leaves, Flowers & Seeds explores the mysterious world of plants to find the answers to these and many more questions. This picture-packed encyclopedia shows a wonderful variety of plants, from fantastic ferns to spiky cacti. It explores the diverse habitats of plants, herbs and spices that make our food tasty, and even how astronuats grow plants in space. It also takes a fun, more sideways look at some truly weird and wonderful plants, including leaves that are home to frogs, orchids that look like parrots, and seeds that spin like helicopters. So open this fascinating ebook and find out more about the amazing world of trees, leaves, flowers, and seeds.
Flower delivery! Featuring five amazing pop-up bouquets, Paper Blossoms brings floral cheer to any room. Display any of the bouquetsa garland of roses, a tropical arrangement, a lotus watergarden, a springtime bouquet, or a vase of liliesas a beautiful centerpiece or room accent. A triumph of pop-up artistry and a sure conversation-starter, these bouquets burst forth with color, joy, and lasting beauty.
These two short fiction works by Barbro Karlén--best-selling author of And The Wolves Howled--are a remarkable literary and visionary feat. In When the Storm Comes, the young Barbro writes in parable-like form, with the prophetic gifts and maturity of a seer, foretelling the catastrophic results of mistreating the earth. A Moment in the Blossom Kingdom is an inspired, imaginative journey into other worlds. Both works provide a glimpse into an exceptionally gifted, visionary child's secret world filled with love and humor.
"A rallying cry for Catholic laity to live out the faith and challenge the culture from one of the keenest thinkers in the Christian world. Christians of all denominations need this." -- Chuck Colson, Founder, Prison Fellowship and the Colson Center for Christian Worldview "Read this book if you are in need of hope...hope that God will give you what you need to be a faithful witness, and hope that this witness will bear fruit." -- Helen Alvare, Associate Professor of Law, George Mason University School of Law "This important and useful book brings together with new insight the biblical theology of God's kingdom and our experience today -- in a society ever more blind to God's purposes and our destiny." -- Francis Cardinal George, O.M.I., Archbishop of Chicago "Cardinal Wuerl offers sage advice leavened by his decades of pastoral leadership and his acute understanding of current events." -- Gerard V. Bradley, Professor of Law, University of Notre Dame "A forceful rebuttal that a Christian can keep his faith in a compartment." -- Mary Ann Glendon, President, Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences "As crises of our day grow more acute, there is more need than ever for informed, committed Catholics to carry the message and values of the faith into society." -- Russell Shaw, Author, Personal Vocation: God Calls Everyone by Name In this insightful and highly relevant book, Cardinal Donald Wuerl makes the case that Catholics do not have the option of absenting themselves from the world, taking refuge in a completely private spirituality. As citizens of two worlds, it is precisely within the context of our faith that we can play a decisive role in transforming American society while furthering the goals of the kingdom of God.