Explores the wide world of botany--the branch of biology that studies the plant kingdom, including physiology, structure, genetics, ecology, distribution, and classification of all plants, as well as how they interact with their environment.

A sweeping work of botanical history, The Cabaret of Plants explores plant species that for millennia have challenged our imaginations, awoken our wonder, and upturned our ideas about history, science, beauty, and belief. Going back to the beginnings of human history, Mabey shows how flowers, trees, and plants have been central to human experience not just as sources of food and medicine but as objects of worship, actors in creation myths, and symbols...