I love gardening. It might be the ultimate girly cliche, but it’s true! I love trying to grow them, and I always try to keep plants and flowers in the house. So naturally, I loved the gorgeous art in this book as much as I enjoyed learning about herbaria. It was incredibly interesting to see the ways vegetation has evolved and changed over the centuries...Amazing that samples of the past have been recorded and contrasted against modern plants in this book! I especially enjoyed the vintage woodcuts and engravings of ancient plants that were included. I received this as a free e-book but I would be very proud to display this on my shelves.

Oh joy and delight of my heart! This is a wonderful book, especially if - like me - you love plants.
It contains a bit of everything, from history and historical significance to the importance of plant preservation, spiced up with magnificent illustrations and photographs.
Highly recommend it if you are a plant lover or if you want to know a bit more about the significance and importance of these incredible treasures.
Many (many!) thanks to Timber Press, Net Galley, and Barbara M. Thiers for my ARC.

The Herbarium is a beautifully illustrated and highly interesting book exploring the cataloguing of plant species and the establishment of the botanical gardens and research centres around the globe. The text follows a chronological development of the herbaria ‘explorers’ / gatherers from Europe, North America and other areas of the globe from the 1600s and onwards cataloguing their exploits and to some extent their desire to be the first to find new and elusive plants. To what extent this resulted in terrible exploitation and the colonialism of countries is not fully explored.The stories of individuals don’t hold back from revealing the true characters of the key figures in the establishment of Herbarium. B M Thiers has presented a detailed biography highlighting the breadth and depth of research. The text is written in an academic style but is extremely accessible. The final section looking at the future and the link to the wedigbio group was useful and thought provoking. Although not a criticism, it would have been interesting to see in more depth how the role of herbarium could further support the challenges that await plant earth in the future. An excellent book that would be recommended to all with a love of plants and the history of much that we take for granted all around us.

An in-depth history of herbaria and plants. It is an interesting read, but I believe you need to be really interested in the subject to enjoy it and get the most out of it. This book gives a great overview of herbaria around the globe, All the famous herbaria, plants, and scientists are in this book, from Linnaeus to Lewis and Clark. I can fully understand the author has had a hard time choosing what to keep and what to cut out of the book. Not an easy task.

There are alot of interesting facts in this book, but I found it to have a bit too many pictures, and at times it went a bit too much into a subject that I think could have been given less space. I am however not an expert in this subject, just an interested observer, so I might not fully understand if something is superbly important. In any case, it’s a great reference book when it comes to herbaria around the world, and the history and science behind plants and where we stand now. My favorite part was the descriptions of herbaria in different countries like South Africa and Brazil.

This was a really beautiful volume and carried the same kind of historical science of other books that explain how things came to be called, not just what they are called. Obviously those with an interest in biological sciences would enjoy it, but I can actually envision gardeners, casual environmentalists, and anyone who cares about preserving undiscovered plant species would also really find this interesting.

*This book was received as an Advanced Reader's copy from NetGalley.

So, you have to really, really like plants to read this book. And I mean that in a good way. I like plants a lot, and it still came as a surprise to me what a herbarium actually was (I'm almost ashamed to admit I thought pressing flowers was just for fun and decoration). Or how many herbariums they are and what scientific progress they have helped make. This book covers that.

Written textbook style, but with plenty of illustrations and photographs to break up the monotony, this book covers the historical significance of herbariums, modern uses and threats, and how you can help or get involved in the work. While it can get a bit dry at times, it was still incredibly interesting to see the depth the collections covered and how many areas in the world had their own herbariums along with the sheer amount of specimens collected and stored. There was also brief touches on the experiments being run with DNA and herbarium specimens, which I found fascinating.

Great for a plant and science lover, this is one of those books that if you really like to study (or are in this line of work) you should probably pick up.

Review by M. Reynard 2020

This book is a fascinating and in-depth exploration of herbaria, with historical context. With numerous photos and scanned pages from the New York Botanical Garden, it's a perfect introduction to the herbarium adventure. It's also a useful reference book that has inspired me to delve deeper.

This is an impressive reference book. It contains a lot of information on the history of botanists and explorers who have studied and classified various plants throughout history. It would make a great gift for the enthusiast or professional with interest in the topic.

I voluntarily reviewed an Advanced Reader Copy of this book provided by the publisher and Net Galley. However, the thoughts expressed are totally my own.

A very detailed book on herbaria, which is something I never knew about before. Full of drawings and photos, history, stories, and explanations. I admit to being a bit intimidated, as botany is not something I truly understand. The historical accounts and stories were fun and interesting to learn about. It’s not a quick read but something to give time and attention in order to truly get the best of it.

I would have loved to read and review this book, it sounds really good and something I'm interested in, unfortunately the book would not show up on my shelf after I downloaded it. Since its not the book or the authors fault I'm giving the book 4 stars based on the parts I could see and other reviews.

--Fascinating World of Collecting Plant Specimens
I received an advanced review copy of Herbarium through NetGalley, and here are my thoughts about the book.

This is a specialist title, and for those who are interested in the history and techniques of preserving dried plant specimens for scientific research and classification. Note that the word herbarium can also refer to a book about medicinal plants. This is not that kind of book!

The audience for this niche will be well rewarded. The author includes several profiles of some of the more notable plant collectors around the world, and includes a history of the development of herbaria in the USA as well as other areas of the world. The anecdotes of the lives of those who devoted themselves to finding and preserving plants are written in a lively, authoritative way.

The book is heavily illustrated with drawings, photographs, and maps that bring another level of richness and depth to this book. Beautifully designed, it could be in that category of books known as "coffee table" books...however, the well-written and researched text would stand up by itself and be fascinating to read, even if the book didn't have a single illustration.

Recommended for those who want to know more about the history of plant collecting, preservation and classification.

Herbarium is a pretty much what you'd expect from the cover: a book all about herbaria, collections of preserved plants.

Although the book touches on the logistics of how a herbarium is made and preserved, the main focus is the notable people who collected and preserved plant species around the world.

I really enjoyed reading this book. I'll admit it was a bit dry in places, but that's hard to avoid given the subject matter. What I enjoyed most were the stories tied to these famous herbaria, especially that of Jeanne Baret (who disguised herself as a man to join an expedition around the world) and Constantine Rafinesque (who was so prolific yet slapdash in his work that he actually negatively impacted the field). You'd be surprised by the drama and personalities involved.

I also appreciated the section toward the end of the book that spoke about the future of herbaria, specially how to volunteer to help preserve your local herbaria. (After all, the pioneers in the field weren't all formally trained, so why can we help out!)

I would highly recommend Herbarium to anyone interested in plants or history. It was a joy to read.

The history of botany, from the first classifications, passing through the organization of Linnaeus and then to the present day. Only for fans of the genre.

La storia della botanica, dalle prime classificazioni, passando per l'organizzazione di Linneo ed arrivare poi ai giorni nostri. Solo per gli appassionati del genere.


THANKS NETGALLEY FOR THE PREVIEW!

This is an incredibly comprehensive look at the history of herbaria, filled with beautiful photos, historical images, detailed information and more. It turns out that this is far more information than I ever really wanted to know about the topic but it should stand as a go-to guide for anyone who wants a really thorough history of the topic. Many of the historic photos and images are worthy of framing. It's really beautiful and brimming with information.

I read a temporary digital ARC of this book for review.

this was not what i expected going in but it contains a lot of info. i'd reccomend it to anyone who has an interest on herbarium history and craft, if you don't though this might be a bit boring.

This little is not simply a book, but a real herbarium that collects not plants nor flowers but... herbaria. In effect it tells the story of herbaria, their origins, the known (and unknown) names of genetists, botanicals and scholars that decided to preserve the world's flora and its secrets.

It contains wonderful picture and interesting notions. I recommend it to all those who are interested in a manual provided by a qualified author.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for provide me with a digital copy in exchange for my honest review.
This book is really interesting and educational if you are interested in this topic. The images are beautiful, like pieces of art.