Get Hold Of And Some Brought Flowers Crafted By Mary Alice Downie In Readable Copy
on And Some Brought Flowers
Mary Alice Downie
I do tend to think that the title of Mary Alice Downie and Mary Hamilton's botanical history of Canada And some Brought Flowers: Plants in a New World is or at least could be a trifle misleading as I for one originally had assumed that the book would be featuring mostly the non native species of plants which the early explorers, pioneers and settlers to Canada specifically brought along with them to the so called New World, and not what is actually presented, namely the endemic, native North American botanical species that early explorers, settlers and pioneers encountered, collected and at times also brought back with them to Europe, And Some Brought Flowers: Plants in a New World is still an informative, enlightening and yes, also visually stunning offering with E.
J. Revell's accompanying full colour line drawings of each of the plant species described presenting a wonderful and expressively realistic mirror to and for the authors' text.
Featuring a detailed and alphabetical listing of the many plant species encountered by individuals like Samuel de Champlain, Martin Frobisher et al on their voyages to mostly the area now known as Canada and of course, post settlement as well, each of the meticulously and scientifically described and illustrated botanical examples of And Some Brought Flowers: Plants in a New World are also then accompanied by specific literary mentions of the same from diaries, natural history tomes, travel logs and the like with examples from the late seventeenth century to the middle of theth century.
And although personally, I have actually found the scientific botanical information on the plant species a bit more of lasting interest than the provided literary examples, they do very much add a sense of realism and immediacy as well as of historicity, of course.
However and all the above being said, I also do feel like I should still warn potential readers that many of the inserted literary quotes and examples encountered and featured in And Some Brought Flowers: Plants in a New World are not at all politically correct with regard to how First Nations, with regard to how Native Canadians or Native Americans have been called, have been named and described.
For indeed and quite often, they are labelled as Savages and as Red Indians, and while of course historically speaking, this was indeed how our First Nations were more often than not identified and I am in fact even glad that this historical fact has not been expunged, that the utilised quotes have not been abridged or changed in any way, I still do want to make sure that this fact, that this point of truth is mentioned as very sensitive and politically astute readers might well be somewhat taken aback at the rather many instances of First Nations individuals being called savages and other now not anymore even remotely politically correct designations.
And the supplemental biographies of the explorers and settlers from whose written documents and works Mary Alice Downie and Mary Hamilton have gleaned their respective quotes and literary accompaniment examples to the plant species featured in the main textual body of And Some Brought Flowers: Plants in a New World , these certainly are an added and appreciated bonus as of course is the bibliography of works used and cited.
However, and unfortunately, I have also tended to find especially the listed short biographies not all that userfriendly or rather, not all that reader friendly, with particularly the specific literary works of the explorers, the authors, while indeed shown and featured, not listed in a way that would make supplemental research and study all that easy for in my opinion, the primary literary works from which examples are featured in the plant section, they really should have been shown separately and clearly as part of the general bibliography,
and the fact that they are just presented in a rather lumped together type of format within the specific biography section of And Some Brought Flowers: Plants in a New World is at least for me on a personal and academic level, a bit frustrating and annoying.
And thus, while I indeed do highly recommend And Some Brought Flowers: Plants in a New World, the for me a bit user and reader unfriendly setup and organisation of the biography/bibliography segments does make me consider not a four star rating as I had originally considered, but a high three star ranking.
.
J. Revell's accompanying full colour line drawings of each of the plant species described presenting a wonderful and expressively realistic mirror to and for the authors' text.
Featuring a detailed and alphabetical listing of the many plant species encountered by individuals like Samuel de Champlain, Martin Frobisher et al on their voyages to mostly the area now known as Canada and of course, post settlement as well, each of the meticulously and scientifically described and illustrated botanical examples of And Some Brought Flowers: Plants in a New World are also then accompanied by specific literary mentions of the same from diaries, natural history tomes, travel logs and the like with examples from the late seventeenth century to the middle of theth century.
And although personally, I have actually found the scientific botanical information on the plant species a bit more of lasting interest than the provided literary examples, they do very much add a sense of realism and immediacy as well as of historicity, of course.
However and all the above being said, I also do feel like I should still warn potential readers that many of the inserted literary quotes and examples encountered and featured in And Some Brought Flowers: Plants in a New World are not at all politically correct with regard to how First Nations, with regard to how Native Canadians or Native Americans have been called, have been named and described.
For indeed and quite often, they are labelled as Savages and as Red Indians, and while of course historically speaking, this was indeed how our First Nations were more often than not identified and I am in fact even glad that this historical fact has not been expunged, that the utilised quotes have not been abridged or changed in any way, I still do want to make sure that this fact, that this point of truth is mentioned as very sensitive and politically astute readers might well be somewhat taken aback at the rather many instances of First Nations individuals being called savages and other now not anymore even remotely politically correct designations.
And the supplemental biographies of the explorers and settlers from whose written documents and works Mary Alice Downie and Mary Hamilton have gleaned their respective quotes and literary accompaniment examples to the plant species featured in the main textual body of And Some Brought Flowers: Plants in a New World , these certainly are an added and appreciated bonus as of course is the bibliography of works used and cited.
However, and unfortunately, I have also tended to find especially the listed short biographies not all that userfriendly or rather, not all that reader friendly, with particularly the specific literary works of the explorers, the authors, while indeed shown and featured, not listed in a way that would make supplemental research and study all that easy for in my opinion, the primary literary works from which examples are featured in the plant section, they really should have been shown separately and clearly as part of the general bibliography,
and the fact that they are just presented in a rather lumped together type of format within the specific biography section of And Some Brought Flowers: Plants in a New World is at least for me on a personal and academic level, a bit frustrating and annoying.
And thus, while I indeed do highly recommend And Some Brought Flowers: Plants in a New World, the for me a bit user and reader unfriendly setup and organisation of the biography/bibliography segments does make me consider not a four star rating as I had originally considered, but a high three star ranking.
Originally published in, 'and some brought flowers' partnersstunning fullcolour watercolours of plants discovered by early travelers to North America with numerous excerpts from the writings of early explorers and settlers.
Arranged in alphabetical order from "Ash" to "Wintergreen" each entry is accompanied by botanical descriptions and historical quotations describing the plants and reflecting on their uses, both practical and aesthetic.
The result is a fascinating history of North American gardening customs, of the professional botanists traveling along the paths of the pioneers and of the settlers who responded with both astonishment and practical common sense to the rich variety of plant species they saw before them.
Contributors include Jacques Cartier, Samuel de Champlain, Louis Hébert, Alexander Henry, John Franklin, Elizabeth Posthuma Simcoe, and Catherine Parr Traill,
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