The Botany of Desire: A Plant’s-Eye View of the World

In writing this book, Pollan hopes to restore us to a more humbled place in evolution, in which we share the story with the plants. Does he succeed? Why or why not?

Why do you think the settlers were so eager to plant apple orchards on the frontier? In addition to offering them seeds for cider and fruit, what did the trees symbolize?

How did John Chapman’s Swedenborgian philosophy inform the way he regarded nature?