Imagine a flower that can curl its shiny leaf around a struggling insect and devour it completely! Or one large enough to hold six quarts of water in the cup formed among its five petals! Or a plant that can tumble along a country lane to scatter its seeds abroad!

Actually you don't have to imagine things like this, for there are such flowers and plants in various parts of the world. Some have even been found under the snow and ice of the arctic north. Others float in the sea with outspread leaves large enough to bear up a sea otter. And others pour masses of brilliant blossoms over your garden fence.

Whether the flower is big or little, whether its fragrance is as sweet as honeysuckle or as unpleasant as skunk cabbage, it exists for just one purpose. And that purpose is to produce seeds which, in turn, will create new plants and flowers. The bright colors and sweet nectar of flowers attract birds and insects which carry pollen from one blossom to another. Through this wonderful process of pollination, new seeds develop and new kinds of plants are created.

In All About the Flowering World, Dr. Ferdinand C. Lane tells the amazing story of flowering plants which, directly or indirectly furnish us with food, clothing, and shelter as well as many healing medicines, delicate flavorings, and blossoms are a constant delight.

From the dust jacket