In the early 1700s Peter the Great established two botanical institutions in St. Petersberg, the city he dared to create a mere seven degrees south of the Arctic Circle. These were the predecessors of the present-day Komarov Botanical Institute, formed in 1931 by the merger of two previous institutions. This book tells the story of the Institute and its predecessors - a glimpse at two-and-a-half centuries of botanical research in Russia. The author describes the physical setting and intellectual climate of the Institute along with its vast resources: a staff of 700, two dozen major laboratories, a large greenhouse and outdoor garden complex, an arboretum-park, several experimental farms, a 450,000-volume library, and combined herbaria of nearly 6 million specimens, dating back to 1709. Among the many achievements of the Komarov, the author stresses the completion of the monumental 30-volume Flora of the USSR. Prepared over a 33-year period, the Flora covers 17,500 species of plants native to the Soviet Union. The author views this work as "the crowning achievement of Russian taxonomy if not of all Russian botany." The book closes with an outline of the Institute's ambitious plans for the future - including a vast effort in tropical research.