This book is a biography of Dr. Tomitaro Makino, known as the “Father of Japanese Botany”. Born in 1862, he gave most of his 94 years of life to plants until he passed away in 1957.



Calling himself “Lover of plants” and “Fairy of vegetation”, he collected about 400,000 plant specimens and named over 1,500 plants during his lifetime. The book assembles rare documents such as essays and quotes of Makino, mesmerizingly detailed sketches of plants by him, and photographs of him.



Included in the book is an illustration of cherry blossom featured in the Weeks cover, Yamazakura originally used as a diagram in the first volume of book series called “Flora Japonica” written by Makino. The book lends its pages to a number of beautiful plant illustrations and goes into details about Makino’s tools, and his rigorous scientific pursuit in observing plants.