I read this book after hearing the author speak. Unfortunately, the story is mainly about the things that can go wrong during plant hunting and more sensational find like the plants used to cure malaria and leprosy or tea plants. It gives hardly any information about methods used to find and document plants or the way they were preserved and grown in other climates. Silvey spends as little asfour pages on modern plant hunting.

The writing style is much like the average high school essay, definitely not that of an experienced professional writer. The organization of the text was chaotic and often repetitive. This book needs good editorto go over it with a fine tooth comb. ( )

Great book filled with death, murder, disease, jungles, and all manner of adventure. Most of the true stories are about the adventures of 18th and 19th Century plant hunters, although the last chapter gives a brief overview of some contemporary plant geeks. Silvey's book contains a timeline, notes for each chapter, bibliography, and index.

Who knew plant hunting could be such adventurous, danger-filled, fascinating work? A beautifully designed and illustrated book. ( )

This book, which I feel could be best categorized as a nonfiction-novel if such a thing existed, describes the stories of many historical botanists and their searches for new plant life. Everything written is a fact, and there is no dialogue, but the stories are arranged in such a way that this book almost reads as a novel anyway. Surprisingly, the adventures of these determined botanists are engaging and suspenseful. Some found themselves stranded with no water, while others discovered dangerous attacking plants that "drew blood from every member of the hunting party." This book could prove very useful for an "Unsung Heroes" unit project. ( )

good but really an overview. kids might like it more. ( )