****** - Verified Buyer
4.5
I am a curious, recently retired electrical engineer that got interested in flowers/plants/botany and bought this book for self-study. I picked this book because our State University uses it in their undergraduate botany program. I've been reading for several months now - there is a lot to digest, but it's all here and all well explained. I was most interested in the later chapters (like flowers in Chapter 25), but got so enthralled with the early chapters (cells) I decided to read the book straight through. Be warned, there is a *lot* here. Here's some of the things that (to me) make this book so good: (1) organization - starts with molecules, then cells, then cell structures, plants, many types of plants, on up to ecosystems. You can jump ahead if you're not interested in a particular section and not feel lost. (2) writing style is clear and easy to absorb. (3) Puts things in perspective. For example, the early chapters give examples of how bacteria and mammalian cells work differently than plant cells. There are explanations of the varied types of cells and how they work differently from each other. Also covered are the many types of plants and how different types of plants work differently. (4) Excellent summaries at the end of each chapter. (5) This book is ***packed*** with large drawings and photographs (color/visible light and electron microscope) - probably over 1100 drawings and photographs in the 727 page main body . The drawings are excellent. Further, drawings are well annotated, with good descriptions below, (6) While reading through the text there seem to be lots of references both forward and backward in the book, which helps tie things together, (7) the large format - the 9.5 x 11" format allows pictures/drawings and text to be near each other so you can easily jump back and forth while reading. Further, the drawings and pictures are large enough to see the details.Raven's Biology of Plants is leaving me with a sense of awe like one might get from a David Attenborough documentary.Negatives? I don't like the cover. I'm not a fan of Van Gogh, nor does this painting reflect the immensity, diversity, and awe of the information in the book. Given the excellent drawings and pictures throughout the book, I'd have the photographer(s) or graphic artist(s) that contributed to the book create a custom cover. For example, a plant, a leaf from the plant, a cell from the leaf, some organelles from the cell, and some molecules from an organelle. Maybe throw in a flower for some added color :-).One thing I have learned about plants (before I bought this book) is that the vocabulary is huge. Over 2,000 terms are used just in plant ID (a related topic I'm studying). Get in to biology of plants and there are hundreds more terms - the 26-page glossary at the end of Biology of Plants has about 1300 terms (rough guess). I haven't felt lost yet, as Biology of Plants explains each term clearly and I'm taking my time.
