Flora Foolery in a Garden of Nonexistent Delights

Today’s book is Parallel Botany, by Leo Lionni.  Translated from the Italian by Patrick Creagh.  Softcover published 1977 by Knopf.

Described by Peter Staler in Time Magazine as “one of the funniest and most brilliant parodies of scientific jargon and scholarship ever published”, Parallel Botany creates a seamless world of imaginary plants, bogus taxonomy, invented science, made-up scientists, and faked  footnotes.

It is a botany alive with wonders, from the Tirillus silvador of the high Andes (whose habit it is to emit shrill whistles on clear nights in January and February) to the Woodland Tweezers (it was the Japanese parallel botanist Uchigaki who first noticed the unsettling relationship between the growth pattern of a group of Tweezers and a winning layout in a game of Go) to the Artisia (whose various forms anticipate the work of such artists as Arp and Calder — and, some believe, the work of all artists, including those not yet born). — from back cover

The protean Lionni, whose meticulous black-and-white “botanical” drawings are integral to this book, was impressively versatile and accomplished.  He held a doctorate degree in economics from the University of Genoa, was an influential advertising artist and art director, and is most known as a beloved author and illustrator of many children’s picture books.  Parallel Botany‘s combination of whimsy and erudition reminds me of Lewis Carroll; others see a similarity to Jorge Luis Borges.

* * *

If you are interested in more particulars about the Book of the Day, search our store at BrainiacBooks.com for the title.  If the book is still in our stock, you’ll be taken to the page for that title.

Add to Technorati Favorites