There is such a place, fantasy, magnificence, humidity, vitality, mystery, arousing the curiosity and yearning of countless nature lovers.
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There are cocoa trees that produce the world's top chocolate ingredients, brightly colored "ins wind" representing flamingos, and "lightning" sloths that move slower than turtles.
But at the same time, there are poison dart frogs that can kill 10 adults with a single release of venom, anacondas that kill silently, and jaguars that love to sneak around.
Beautiful and dangerous, the Amazon forest attracts countless people, but many people are "dissuaded" by many factors.
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One woman, at the age of 47, began her first Amazon forest expedition. The enchanting flowers and trees excite her, and she felt compelled to let their extraordinary beauty last forever.
Over the next 32 years, she entered the rainforest 15 times, looking for the beauty hidden in the forest and documenting and painting them. In this way, at nearly half a hundred years old, she dedicated the second half of her life to plant science and environmental protection. There are as many as nine species of plants that she discovered and named.
She is Margaret Mee, a brave explorer and outstanding botanical artist in the Brazilian rainforest. After her death, at the memorial service held for her, Prince Philip of the United Kingdom and Brazilian dignitaries were present to mourn.
The 2012 Brazilian documentary "Margaret Mee and the Moonflower" chronicles her last trip to the Amazon, featuring Margaret seriously and attentively.
As a woman, she bravely pursues her beloved career across the ages; as a botanical artist, she protects the rainforest, records and explores the bits and pieces of nature, leaving the world with many valuable botanical materials. And the beginning of all this stems from a pure and attachment to nature...
Excerpts from the documentary
During her 32 years of exploring the Amazon forest, Margaret recorded what she saw and heard in her diary and paintings.
These precious texts and images are included in the book Flowers of the Amazon Forests.
Flowers of the Forest is a true account of Margaret Mi's 15 expeditions into the rainforest over 32 years, with 160 exquisite hand-drawn plants, sketches and related photographs.
Since its publication in 1988, the book has been reprinted many times and has been well received by readers in Europe, america and Japan. Now, the book finally has Chinese imported version.
The Flower of the Forest: Botanical Notes of Margaret Rice
In Flowers of the Forest,
She truly recorded the journey of this expedition,
Tells about her work as a painter of botany.
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160 heirloom paintings
See the beauty of the Amazon forest
The book "Flowers of the Forest" contains 160 exquisite hand-drawn paintings, drawings and related photographs of Margaret M.
She has maintained a habit of keeping a diary during her travels, from which the text comes, and the main content of the narrative is her work as a botanical artist and her reflections on the rapidly disappearing Brazilian rainforest.
Plants are the most attractive to Margaret.
She would draw a colorful sketch of the plant on the spot, and then go back to her studio and draw a large picture of the whole plant. Nine of margaret rice's recorded plants were previously unknown to the scientific community and are now named after her, including the Aechmea meeana, sobralia margaretae, and Neoregelia margaretae.
Along the way, she carried plastic bags, small baskets for collectors and boxes to preserve plants. She kept an eye on the plants so that they wouldn't die on her long journey home. At home, she completes the final painting based on sketch drafts drawn during her travels.
Sometimes she would live in a settlement for a while, in order to make the plants live longer. There she would open a small garden and plant the species she had collected. Many of these species ended up in research centers in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro.
Recommend this botanical notebook to everyone, Margaret M. was the top botanical illustrator of the twentieth century and made great contributions to the development of plant science. China also has a long history of traditional Chinese paintings, I believe that Chinese readers will be very fond of the plant hand paintings inside, through this book to understand the rich plant ecology of the Amazon.
— Ambassador of Brazil to China
Paulo Estivallet de Mesquita Paul Valle
In the small town on the Gurupi River where we stayed, the harbor full of greenery and peace gave me my first taste of the joys and hardships of the Amazon Valley, which at the moment seemed to be far away on the other side of the planet.
- Excerpt from "Flowers of the Forest"
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15 times in 32 years
Wonderful Amazon tour
For thirty-two years, Margaret Mi dreamed of the vast, unpredictable, and fertile rainforests of the Amazon region, and revisited it again and again under its temptation.
Her thrilling journeys with the stubborn boatmen on board must be forced to cooperate either gently or harshly. She had met drunken prospectors and could only stop them from approaching with a revolver. She has also encountered rapids, canoe ingress and sudden storms on the river.
These thrilling experiences make up her Journey to the Amazon and add a rainforest-specific character to Flowers of the Forest.
Margaret was attracted to the variety of Brazilians she met, often living briefly with them; she particularly enjoyed meeting those who lived by the river and became friends with many of them over the years.
She was petite, with blue eyes and blond hair. She believes that even in remote forested areas, standards should not be lowered, but should be made to look the same as in the civilized world. She wore gloves and a fine mesh cover over her sun hat, but despite her efforts, she could not resist the invasion of a small South American black flying insect called "pium".
Margaret has always maintained a sense of humor and always sees a funny side even in the most dangerous and harsh situations. She never lost her passion for her work and always spared no effort to study reports of rare species; she even discovered several new species, some of which bear her name.
The Flower of the Forest: Botanical Notes of Margaret Rice
In Flowers of the Forest,
She truly recorded the journey of this expedition,
Tells about her work as a painter of botany.
︾