A zesty compendium of spices and herbs, both familiar and obscure.

Hot, spicy, aromatic, zingy, floral, earthy, and fragrant: herbs and spices are integral to our daily meals and drinks, delivering flavor and color in abundance. Kew Pocketbooks: Herbs and Spices offers a glimpse into this lively world with forty stunning paintings from the Kew archives, showcasing the plant forms of our favorite herbs and spices. Some of them are more familiar than others--such as the verdant bunches of parsley and coriander, or the vibrant red of cinnamon leaves and yellow turmeric rhizomes--while others featured in these pages are ripe for discovery. An introductory chapter by Kew expert Mark Nesbitt provides background to all the plants covered, making this an essential keepsake for all spice heads and herb zealots.

For more than 250 years, the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew has fostered the study of plant diversity and economic botany.