Outskirts Press, INC.

A History of Flora…and Much More

After the death of wise and witty Grandfather (first introduced in Trapp’s Did the Smarter Apes Stay in the Trees), his grandson discovers a treasure trove of writings about flowers, stashed in a box in the attic. This eclectic and unorganized collection of facts, fables, and folklore about “earth stars” (his name for flowers) included stories from mythology, poems celebrating flowers over the millennia, and tales of the complex language of flowers seen in the Victorian Age. Also uncovered were several whimsical fictions beginning with the discovery of Adam’s diary (and the real story of Eden, the First Garden) and ending with a talking woodchuck who reenacts in a mini-drama a conference of flowers discussing the endangered species Homo sapiens. Grandson organized these writings loosely into Grandfather’s Legacy to showcase Grandfather’s belief that “Flora…[provide]…truly a culture-free language, understood by the young and old, the dull and the bright, the saint and the sinner, all over the known world.” We are given unique insights into human history and the state of the world today – as interpreted both seriously and humorously through a view of the exalted position of flowers in the universe.