Составить пересказ , в 12 предложений botany may not be regarded by many as the most exciting of careers, but i can honestly say that i have never found it anything but enthralling. i have had the great fortune to travel virtually the entire world for my job looking for plant species. last year, my research took me to madagascar, one of the most beautiful and fascinating countries i have ever had the good fortune to visit. madagascar is an island about the size of france off the south-east coast of africa. it is a biologist's dream. what is more, an estimated 80% of these are found nowhere else on earth. the reason that madagascar has such a treasure trove of unique species is that its animal and plant life have been evolving in isolation for millions of years. it is estimated that madagascar broke away from the indian subcontinent somewhere between 80 and 100 million years ago making it the world's oldest island.with such a tremendous collection of species under its care, the madagascan government has set aside about fifty areas of special interest as national parks. one of the most beautiful is the tsingy bemaraha national park tsingy consists of deciduous forests and mangrove swamps sitting on towering, jagged limestone rocks. below ground, there is an enormous network of caves, rivers and streams. there are bird, reptile, lemur and frog species in the park the aye-aye, the world's largest nocturnal primate, lives there too. it has a very odd appearance - luminous, beady eyes and a very long middle finger on both its hands.it was in this truly incredible wildlife habitat that i gathered the majority of my plant samples. getting to many of the plants in tsingy can be a struggle because of the terrain. you have to be prepared to climb and scramble over this wonderful rocky landscape. the limestone pinnacles soar above 150 feet in some places. the plants cling precariously to the sharp peaks and towering cliffs. those on the tops of the rocks have had to adapt to extreme conditions - burning heat and long periods of drought - so they do not have leaves, but instead are covered in thorns. on the other hand, those on the canyon floor have water, but live in shadow. the lack of light means they have to stretch up towards the sky to grasp whatever sunlight they can and so they have unusually long stems and branches.to date, we, botanists, have counted roughly 650 species in tsingy. most of these have not been investigated, but research in laboratories, like the one i work in, will hopefully discover if any are of medicinal value. i have high hopes. madagascar is home to the rosy periwinkle, suspect there are many more madagascan plants with potential disease-curing properties.