中文简介：

这本由“植物学界的奥杜邦”创作的经典作品集以全新的大型单行本形式出版，附录中还列出了现代植物名称，其中有250多幅玛丽·沃克斯·沃尔科特（Mary Vaux Walcott）关于美国和加拿大野花生活的知名水彩画的精美复制品。

怎样才能画出在森林深处盛开的一朵野花呢？对玛丽·沃克斯·沃尔科特来说，这需要她每天带着画箱花17个小时在户外捕捉精致的花瓣和叶子的形状、运动和颜色。

《北美野花》最初于1925年出版，共5卷，以超大册的形式向公众介绍了北美植物的多样性和美丽，获得了巨大的赞誉。如今，本书精选了一些令人惊叹的插图，保留了它们的美感和现实主义。

沃尔科特的技术涉及对细节、颜色、光线和透视的精确关注。她的艺术也可以作为一位女科学家与当时对其性别的偏见作斗争的作品来欣赏。她是一位无畏的探险家，熟练的地质学家，在妇女的成就经常被忽视或错误归因的时代，她是史密森学会的慷慨捐助者。

这束自然界短暂的礼物既鼓舞人心又丰富多彩，是植物学和科学艺术的永恒财富。

英文简介：

Now available in a new, large single volume with an appendix also listing the modern plant names, this classic collection by “the Audubon of botany” features more than 250 exquisite reproductions of Walcott's celebrated watercolors of wildflower life in the United States of America and Canada.

What does it take to paint a wildflower that blooms for a single day in a deep forest? For Mary Vaux Walcott, it involved spending up to seventeen hours a day out of doors with her paintbox to capture the shape, movement, and colors of delicate petals and leaves.

Originally published in 1925 to enormous acclaim in five, oversized volumes, Walcott's sketches introduced the diversity and beauty of North American plants to the general public. A selection of some of the most stunning illustrations are now available in a single volume, these illustrations have lost none of their beauty or realism.

Walcott's technique involved precise attention to detail, color, light, and perspective. Her art can also be appreciated as the work of a woman scientist battling the prejudices against her sex of the day. She was an intrepid explorer, skilled geologist, and generous benefactor to the Smithsonian Institution at a time when women's accomplishments were often overlooked or misattributed.

As inspirational and informative as they are a pleasure for the eyes, this bouquet of nature's fleeting gifts is a lasting treasure of botanic and scientific artistry.