Too Cold to Be Outside?

It's freezing cold today and a good time to click around interesting sites about plants and the environment. Here are a few to get you started.

GREEN BUILDINGS - THE TEN BEST OF 2008
Inhabitat posted the 10-best green buildings of 2008 - click on their name to see these beauties: A church, a temple, a college building, public buildings. They were all constructed using unique, if not new, environmentally sensitive methods.

HISTORICAL AGRICULTURE LITERATURE AT CORNELL
While searching for a book about weeds, I found a Cornell University link to
Core Historical Literature of Agriculture.

Reading on a computer screen is less desirable than actually holding a book in your hands, but when it comes to the title, "The feminine monarchie, or, The historie of bees: shewing their admirable nature, and properties, their generation, and colonies, their government, loyaltie, art, industrie, enemies, warres, magnanimitie, &c. : together with the right ordering of them from time to time: and the sweet profit arising thereof. "

Written by Charles Butler in 1623, reading the scanned pages online is probably the closest we will ever come to discovering the 17 century scientist's thoughts about bees.

CHINA'S HORTICULTURAL GIFTS TO THE US
Many "new" plant introductions are those discovered in China and brought to the U.S. by plants-people. There are many micro-climates in China similar to those found here so these discoveries transfer easily to our gardens. Plant propagators win by providing American gardeners with exciting introductions every year.

The Flora of China is a website from China that introduces readers to the important comparison between theirs and ours.

A persistent leader in horticultural sustainability, Missouri Botanical Garden has received over 800,000 specimens from China, according to the site.

EFLORAS
The site efloras is an online catalog of plants from around the world. This astounding resource includes plants of America, Madagascar, China, Chile and Nepal. Other links at the site include: Harvard University Herberia, Royal Botanic Gardens and California Academy of Sciences.

CREATIVE RECYCLING
Inhabitot urges you to recycle holiday wrapping paper in a variety of ways - some you probably had not considered.

Let me know what you find out there that's a good read.

Comments

Oh my gosh, Martha, your last name is Stoodley? Too cool, thanks for leaving a comment on my blog. My husband's family is originally from England - late 1800's. Most live on the Canadian Prairies. We live on Vancouver Island. Good to hear from you. How's the weather where you live?

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