Since prehistory, plants -- as sources of food, medicine, clothing, beauty, and life itself -- have been the province of women. This fertile relationship has inspired a rich literature, brought together here in a lush collection of nonfiction and poetry. Linda Hogan and Brenda Peterson illuminate their subject from a range of perspectives as diverse as the flora they explore. Here are curanderas and craftswomen whose legacy of plant wisdom safeguards our connection to the green world; botanists and geneticists; and visionaries like Rachel Carson, who show us the world -- and our power to protect or destroy it -- in a blade of grass. Here are Rigoberta Menchú on maize, Sharman Apt Russell on the perfume of plants, Alice Walker on the "Revolutionary Petunia," Marjory Stoneman Douglas on the Everglades" "river of grass," Isabel Allende on the language of flowers, Susan Orlean on "Orchid Fever," Diane Ackerman on the rain forest, and Kathleen Norris on "Dreaming of Trees." Here are an eloquent "ode to mold," a paean to mulch, an elegy for elders. Here is a book that celebrates an ancient and ongoing relationship in a new and appealing way.