Gardens have exerted a deep influence on the culture of cities. Considering each city as a whole, this book presents the profoundly different roles of gardens in cultural development and social life.

Private and princely gardens, from Roman antiquity to approximately 1850, are considered, whether in China, India, the Ottoman Empire, Europe, or the United States. Turning to the subject of planning, the dire lack of a municipal garden policy is examined in contemporary Marrakech. In-depth evaluations of parks and garden planning reveal the successes and limitations of different policies in Stockholm, Tokyo, Kerala (India), historic Suzhou (China), and the U.S. New Towns of the 1960s. This book unveils an exciting domain of interplay between public and private action that is little known by citizen groups, city planners, and managers.

When workmen excavating the ruins of Pompeii eagerly gathered the native medicinal plants growing there, Wilhelmina Jashemski discovered that this was another example of the continuity of life in the shadow of Vesuvius. Many of the plants used for herbal medicine around Pompeii today are the same ones that ancient authorities such as Pliny the Elder and Dioscorides recommended for treating the same types of disorders.

In this book, Jashemski presents an herbal of thirty-six medicinal plants, most of them known to the ancients and still employed today. She describes each plant's contemporary medicinal uses and compares them to ancient practices as recorded in literary sources. Scientific, English, and Italian names and the plant's mythological associations complete the entries, while elegant, full-page portraits depict each plant visually.