Botanical art, insect vision, lawn laments and arboreal architecture are among the topics for speakers in Cornell Plantations' Fall 2002 series of 10 Wednesday lectures.

The series, which is free and open to the public, begins Sept. 4 at 5:30 p.m. in Warren Hall Auditorium (B-45 Warren Hall) with the sixth annual William H. and Jane Torrence Harder Lecture by Withrop Wetherbee. The Avalon Foundation Professor in Humanities and in English, Wetherbee will speak on "The Spirit of Landscape in Medieval Poetry," and a garden gala reception will follow to kick off the series.

With the exception of the Sept. 4 lecture, all lectures in the series are scheduled for Wednesdays at 7:30 p.m. in the James Law Auditorium of Shurman Hall at Cornell University's College of Veterinary Medicine. Cornell students may attend the lectures for the one-credit course Hort. 480 by contacting sms92@cornell.edu or calling 255-2406 for more information.

Other lectures in the Cornell Plantations Fall 2002 series include:

• Sept. 18: 14th annual Audrey Harkness O'Connor Lecture, "Seeing the Invisible: The Ultraviolet World of Insects," Thomas Eisner, the Jacob Gold Schurman Professor of Chemical Ecology at Cornell;
• Sept. 25: Frank A. Alfredo Memorial Lecture, " When Bad Lawns Happen to Good People," Frank S. Rossi, Cornell assistant professor of turfgrass science;
• Oct. 2: "From Seashore to Alpine Summit: Unusual Plants of the Hawaiian Islands," Mark Tebbitt, horticultural taxonomist at the Brooklyn Botanical Garden;
• Oct. 9: "Can We Restore Biodiversity to Urban and Suburban Habitats?" Steven N. Handel, professor of ecology, evolution and natural resources and director of the Center of Urban Restoration at Rutgers University;
• Oct. 16: Class of 1938 Lecture, "The Origins, Discovery and Cultivation of the World's Most Popular Garden Plants," John Michael Grimshaw, author, gardener and botanist, Bodegraven, the Netherlands;
• Oct. 23: "The Architecture of Trees: Wind, Gravity and Safety," Karl J. Niklas, the Liberty Hyde Bailey Professor of Plant Biology at Cornell;
• Oct. 30: 20th annual William J. Hamilton Jr. Lecture, " The Well-Tended Perennial Garden," Tracy DiSabato-Aust, author of The Well-Tended Perennial Garden , Sunbury, Ohio;
• Nov. 6: "How Do We See? A Botanical Artist's View," Bente King, botanical illustrator, Ithaca; and
• Nov. 13: "Cultivating Delight: The Sensory Pleasures of Gardening," Diane Ackerman, naturalist and author of Cultivating Delight: A Natural History of My Garden , Ithaca.

In addition to its education programs, Cornell Plantations maintains the arboretum, botanical garden and natural areas of Cornell. More information is available at the web site http://www.plantations.cornell.edu/ or by calling (607) 255-3020.