Plants of Mystery and Magic

Rating:
Summary: So so
Review: This is a sweeping theme. Plants have been of immeasurable importance all through the existence of mankind. The book is nicely printed with quite good photographs (although these fall short of being superb). The pictures are supported by brief texts, that touch on a wide body of classical, nordic and celtic mythology. A book of this kind needs an author that either has a superb command of language or an excellent grasp of the topic. Neither seems to be the case here.

A clear error that I spotted is with the "even ash". As the reader will know ash has leaves that are "odd pinnate compound". Finding a rare aberrant leaf (even pinnate) is counted to be lucky. The author quotes a verse that starts "Even ash, I do thee pluck, Hoping thus to meet good luck" but apparently failed to read this himself, instead coming up with the ... explanation "that plucking an ash leaf brings a boon". This sort of error does not inspire confidence in an author.