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by Alexander C. Martin 
A fine guide to many seemingly invisible plants
In our garden there grows a plant with beautifully lobed leaves which twist slightly at the point where they join the stalk, and which appear to be oriented to the points of the compass. Until I came across this guide, none of my books could tell me the name of this plant, which turned out to be wild lettuce. This small book has many such plants: flowers and herbs that are all around us, but which we hardly ever see, or, as the cover states it, "the successful plants that nobody wants." I have found here the names of many plants which I pass on a daily basis in my rambles, but which I could never find in any guidebook, until I purchased this one. I also found information about those plants whose names I knew previously: the book has helped me become reacquainted with them. Indeed, I have always left a small corner of my garden untouched, simply because it seemed appropriate that there be a wilderness, however small, available to us; I now know the names of most of the plants that reside there. Many will find this guide a useful means by which to eradicate such plants from their gardens, since methods for removal are included with many of the descriptions. I myself have no quarrel with the plants in this guide; as Emerson said, a weed is merely a plant whose virtues have not yet been discovered. If those virtues are not economic or agricultural, but rather aesthetic or scientific, then this book will be useful to those who do not garden or farm, but want to know more about those plants which seem to exist beside us without names. Despite the "seek and destroy" attitude which infuses this book, I have found it useful in identifying these plants: my world is much richer now that I have come to know better our almost invisible neighbors. |
