"Under this modest title is hidden one of the world's most fascinating volumes. The author, who apparently came as close to knowing everything possible in modern times, was professionally both a botanist in the United States Department of Agriculture and a lieutenant in the United States Navy. In this latter capacity he served for a year as assistant governor of Guam. In somewhat over four hundred pages he not only takes up all the native and crop plants of any importance, but also touches on such subjects as the history of pirates in the Pacific, how floating seeds led to the discovery of ocean currents, the grammar of the native language, the actual anatomical means by which stinging plants attain their devilish ends, and the aspect of the various kinds of tropical vegetation on the island , each of these digressions being developed with finicky regard for accuracy and appropriately embellished with authoritative footnotes." --Edgar Anderson, botanist and author of Man, Plants, and Life