"The story of the universe. Volume 3 (of 4)" by Esther Singleton is an illustrated popular-science anthology written in the early 20th century. Devoted to The Earth’s Garment: Flora, it gathers accessible essays by scientists and authors to explain how plants are built, evolve, are classified, and spread across the globe, highlighting their forms, functions, and relationships with climate, animals, and people.The opening of the volume moves from fundamentals to broad panoramas. David Robertson introduces botany’s accessibility and then crisply explains roots, leaves, and flowers, detailing pollen, stigmas, and the roles of wind and insects in fertilization, along with monoecious/dioecious arrangements and adaptations that discourage selfing. Sir J. William Dawson surveys early Mesozoic plant life amid post-Carboniferous upheavals, emphasizing cycads, conifers (notably ginkgo and Sequoia), the uniform global spread of these groups, hints of early monocots, and the generally dark pine–cycad forests that left modest coal deposits. Edward Clodd outlines living plant life-forms by dividing cryptogams and phanerogams, then traces reproduction, the rise of flowers, and how nectar, color, scent, and structure coevolved with insects to drive cross-fertilization and seed dispersal. He even sketches how light and pigment explain floral colors. Louis Figuier then opens a tour of plant geography, describing Europe’s northern, middle, and Mediterranean regions with vivid notes (including M…
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