"It is interesting to contemplate a tangled bank, clothed with
many plants of many kinds, with birds singing on the bushes,
with various insects flitting about, and with worms crawling
through the damp earth, and to reflect that these elaborately
constructed forms, so different from each other, and dependent
upon each other in so complex a manner, have all been produced
by laws acting around us..." --Charles Darwin, "The Origin of
Species" Robert Michael Pyle's popular "Tangled Bank" column
appeared in fifty-two consecutive issues of "Orion" and "Orion
Afield" magazines over eleven years. Each essay collected in
"The Tangled Bank" explores Charles Darwin's contention that the
elements of such a bank, and by extension all the living world,
are endlessly interesting and ever evolving. Pyle's thoughtful
and concise narratives range in subject from hops and those who
love them to independent bookstores to the monarchs of Mexico.
In each piece, Pyle refutes "the idea that the world is a boring
place," sharing his