中文简介：

我们非常熟悉的植物名称，如木兰花、九重葛、红豆杉，可能只是人的名字，但在这些名字背后却隐藏着间谍和英雄主义、竞争和神秘以及灵感的故事。本书讲述了这些人和以他们命名的植物的故事。

本书逐章讲述了每种植物命名背后的故事，其中许多命名人都是先驱探险家、收藏家和植物学家，例如爱丽丝·伊斯特伍德，她的黄菊花Eastwoodia elegans就是以她的名字命名的。伊斯特伍德在19世纪探索了以前的未知领域，并在1906年的旧金山地震中拯救了加州科学院的无价植物收藏。

主题包括从查尔斯·达尔文和法国传奇植物学家皮埃尔·马格诺尔，到美国开国元勋乔治·华盛顿和本杰明·富兰克林。

每个条目都附有来自自然历史博物馆图书馆的精美艺术品，以及标本和野生植物的照片和每种植物的基本分类细节和地理分布。

英文简介：

The names of plants that are so familiar to us −magnolia, bougainvillea, sequioa − may just be names, but behind the names lie stories of espionage and heroism, rivalry and mystery and inspiration. In the Name of Plants relates the stories of these people and the plants that were named after them.

Each chapter tells the story of the person for which each plant is named, many of whom were pioneering explorers, collectors and botanists – such as Alice Eastwood who has the yellow aster, Eastwoodia elegans, named after her. Eastwood explored previously uncharted territories in the 19th century and famously saved the California Academy of Science's priceless plant collection from the 1906 San Francisco earthquake.

Subjects range from Charles Darwin (Darwinia) and legendary French botanist Pierre Magnol (Magnolia), to US founding fathers George Washington (Washingtonia) and Benjamin Franklin (Franklinia).

Each entry is accompanied by superb artworks from the Library of the Natural History Museum, as well as photography of specimens and wild plants and the essential taxonomic details and geographic spread for each species.