Botany non-textbook book

[Mark Hammer]

     Plant-eder's:
     
     At our last biology faculty meeting, we became disturbed to learn that 
     some of our top students received low marks on their verbal GRE scores 
     while getting very high quantitative scores.  One solution we came up 
     with is to have some additional non-textbook reading assignments in 
     our major's courses.  Something like Lewis Thomas: Lives of the Cell 
     for our Intro Biology course.
     
     I was wondering if any of you have a suggestion as to a general 
     interest book related to plants or plant science that might be 
     appropriate for a sophomore-level Botany course.
     
     Also:
     
     Does anyone else do something similar in their Botany or Biology 
     courses? 
     
     What tools, besides a standard book report, do you use to assess 
     whether the students have read the material?
     
     Thanks for the input!
     
     Mark
     
     --
     Mark Hammer                                mhammer at wscgate.wsc.edu 
     Department of Biology                      phone:  402.375.7043 
     Wayne State College                        FAX:    402.375.7204 
     Wayne, NE  68787