A heavily illustrated history of herbaria from one of the world's foremost experts. Since the 1500s, scientists have documented the plants and fungi that grow around them. organizing the specimens into collections. Know as herbaria, these archives helped give rise to botany as its own scientific endeavor. Thiers explores how herbaria emerged and have changed over time. She explains how recent innovations that allow us to see things on both the molecular and global level will help us address some of the critical problems facing the world today. -- adapted from jacket