An attempt to provide a new look at plant-life, by using photographic techniques not normally found in non-specialist books. The book aims to provide an opportunity to observe the variety of form and function, of behaviour and of physical and chemical engineering in the plant world. The author views some plants as having a higher level of intelligence than most computers. Others have hydraulic systems capable of cracking concrete. Some live on their nerves, while others take all they need from the soil, or from water, or from air around them. Some live for just a brief season, others for a thousand years. They contain springs and levers, pumps and pipework, chemical factories, sensors, tracking devices and clocks. Malcolm Wilkins is author of the standard textbook on plants, The Physiology of Plant Growth and Development.