..."An entire race was wiped out in Tasmania, perhaps the only successful genocide in human history"...
Gita, yes, as I understand it the Tasmanian natives were totally wiped out and pretty much ceased to exist. The Western coast of Tasmania, especially, is totally wild and impenetrable. Its so impenetrable you would have to see it to know how deep the gorges are, how thick the trees are. There are places where the foilage is so dense you literally cant penetrate it. The rivers flow with black water. they are full of tanine or some such. That whoile region was a massive penal colony in the early 1800s and I can only describe the land and atmosphere there as seeming to be conscious in some way. It is as though the very air, the rocks, are aware of your being there.
Hey Sheila, I took a few courses several years ago. I excelled at Biology, but there was a chapter on Botany, and it was incredible.
One young woman in my course, she pursued it, enrolled at university and is a well-known herbalist now. She is also very skillful in regards to Plants, their groupings, sub-groups, genus, and latin terminologies (which boggle me).
I think it's a wonderful course, although I only read one chapter, it was fascinating.
I did a search on the net for " Botany in college" and found that math, chemistry, and physics are either required, strongly recommended or sometimes electives. You might want to conduct your own search.