000			01625nam a2200217 a 4500
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005			20231009193136.0
008			170803s20012001nyc 000 u eng d
020			_a9780375760396
082	1		_a306.4 POL _2
100	1		_aPollan, Michael
245	1	0	_aThe botany of desire : _ba plant's eye view of the world _c/ Michael Pollan
260			_aNew York _b: Random House _c, 2001
300			_a270 p. _c; 21 cm.
500			_aIncludes bibliographical references and index
520			_aIn 1637, one Dutchman paid as much for a single tulip bulb as the going price of a town house in Amsterdam. Three and a half centuries later, Amsterdam is once again the mecca for people who care passionately about one particular plant - thought this time the obsessions revolves around the intoxicating effects of marijuana rather than the visual beauty of the tulip. How could flowers, of all things, become such objects of desire that they can drive men to financial ruin? In The Botany of Desire, Michael Pollan argues that the answer lies at the heart of the intimately reciprocal relationship between people and plants. In telling the stories of four familiar plant species that are deeply woven into the fabric of our lives, Pollan illustrates how they evolved to satisfy humankinds's most basic yearnings - and by doing so made themselves indispensable. For, just as we've benefited from these plants, the plants, in the grand co-evolutionary scheme that Pollan evokes so brilliantly, have done well by us.
546			_aEnglish.
650		4	_aHuman-plant relationships
942			_cMO
999			_c261916 _d261916