A long awaited new edition of this classic text on the plants of china with new text and many new color photographs.

A colonial discourse has perpetuated the literary notion of islands as paradisal. This study explores how the notions of island paradise have been represented in European literature, the oral and literary indigenous traditions of the Caribbean and Sri Lanka, a colonial literary influence in these islands, and the literary experience after independence in these nations. Persistent themes of colonial narratives foreground the aesthetic and ignore the workforce in a representation of island space as idealized, insular, and vulnerable to conquest; an ideal space for management and control. English landscape has been replicated in islands through literature and in reality - the 'Great House' being an ideological symbol of power. Island Paradise: The Myth investigates how these entrenched notions of paradise, which islands have traditionally represented metonymically, are contested in the works of four postcolonial authors: Jamaica Kincaid, Lawrence Scott, Romesh Gunesekera, and Jean Arasanayagam, from the island nations of the Caribbean and Sri Lanka. It analyzes texts which focus on gardens, island space, and houses to examine how these motifs are used to re-vision colonial/contested sites. This book examines the relationship between landscape and identity and, with reference to Homi K. Bhabha, considers how these writers offer an alternative space for negotiating the ambivalence of hybridity.

Focusing on plants, this book covers plants in each of the three biomes - Humid Tropics, Warm Temperate and Temperate. It also tells the stories of some of the stars in this living theatre of plants and people: where the plants come from; how they grow and are harvested; what people use them for, and how and when some of them arrived in Britain.

For over a century, and across five generations, the Veitch family pioneered the introduction of hundreds of new plants into gardens, conservatories and houses and were amongst the foremost European cultivators and hybridisers of their day. The story begins in 1768 when a Scotsman called John Veitch came to England to find his fortune, starting out as a gardener for the aristocracy. Realising that horticultural mania had begun to spread throughout the social classes, John's son, James, opened a nursery in Exeter and began to send some of the first commercial plant collectors into the Americas, Australia, India, Japan, China and the South Seas. By the beginning of the twentieth century, the Veitch's had become key figures within the gardening establishment, involved with the Royal Horticultural Society from its beginnings and the great Chelsea Flower Show. Combining an historian's eye for detail with a flair for storytelling, Shephard charts the fortunes of one family and through them tells the fascinating story of the modern English garden.

An authoritative account of the fascinating plant life of China, written by two botanical experts. Chinese plant life is estimated to include up to 30000 species and extends from the Himalayan snow line across a diversity of habitats to the lush tropical south. Although for many years access to Chinese plants was limited, the present situation provides an opportunity for a new and authoritative assessment of botanical treasure-houses such as Yunnan and Sichuan. It will be of interest to those working in agriculture, alternative medicine, plant conservation, ecology, genetics, horticulture, molecular biology and taxonomy.

A unique addition to the botanical literature, this book presents the flora of China in its astonishing diversity.