The Cabaret of Plants: Forty Thousand Years of Plant Life and the Human Imagination

In his inimitable style, English naturalist Mabey (The Ash and the Beech) blends genres to produce a work that demonstrates his passion for the lives of plants. By incorporating natural history, travel writing, and mainstream botany into a text rich with philosophy, poetry, and visual art, Mabey brings a sense of excitement and vitality to his material (the book’s illustrations are paired well with the text and greatly enhance it). One of his goals is to move readers beyond the simplistic idea that plants are passive and uninteresting members of ecosystems. As he explains it, he has written a “story about plants as authors of their own lives and an argument that ignoring their vitality impoverishes our imaginations and our well-being.” He succeeds admirably in this task, whether he is discussing the 20,000 varieties of apples that have been bred from a single original stock, the critical role that olive trees played in the development of Impressionist art, or the complex ways in which plants communicate with one another. Mabey is delightfully eclectic in his approach, often touching on those species with which he has a personal connection, but he consistently advances his central theme while providing interesting insights and opinions. Illus. Agency: InkWell Management. (Jan.)