Encyclopedia of Herbs & Their Uses [antikvár]

PrefaceIn the most generally accepted sense, herbs are plants valued for their medicinal or aromatic qualities and often grown and harvested for their unique properties. As gardeners, we admire the decorative qualities and the fragrances of only a relatively small number of these plants -mostly annuals and perennials - knowing perhaps only a little about the culinary and medicinal worth of some of them.Many people, however, quickly develop a keen interest in both the history and traditions of herb gardening, as well as the fascinating variety of plants that can be categorized as herbs and can be grown for benefits that are felt well beyond the garden. Our appreciation of familiar ornamental plants, such as forsythia and flowering quince, can only be increased when we learn of their long history of use in Chinese medicine.The Royal Horticultural Society, through its close links with its membership and its various contacts throughout horticulture, recognizes the large and growing demand for a definitive,illustrated work on herbs. The Society ranks this demand highly enough to have endorsed The Royal Horticultural Society Encyclopedia of Herbs and Their Uses, by Deni Bown. I recommend this comprehensive work of reference to you for the quality, scope, and depth of the information that you will find in its pages.Deni Bown has dedicated much of her adult life to finding, photographing, and sharing her encyclopedic knowledge of herbs with gardeners all over the world. It is a great benefit for keen gardeners that these many years of work have been translated into this authoritative volume that includes systematic information on more than 1,000 herbs, illustrated with more than 1,500 photographs. I am particularly pleased that, in addition to this dictionary of botanical information, there are sections dedicated to the planning and cultivation of beautiful herb gardens and to the conservation of herbal plants in the wild.I very much hope that you find this encyclopedia an essential and enjoyable book.Sir Simon Hornby President, The Royal Horticultural Society London, Summer 1995