How does Michael Pollan use imagery in The Botany of Desire?

Example of Imagery:

"Then, that night, I dreamt about what I'd witnessed, the stiff yellow grid and its solitary red joker. In the dream version the broken tulip appears in the front row, and right beside it lies a fancy fountain pen, a Mountblanc. (This is all too embarrassing to make up.) In a gesture of impetuousness completely out of character, I grab them both, the broken tulip and the pen, and run like a man possessed up Fifth Avenue. I'm flying by the spinning doors of the Plaza and Pierre hotels when I snag the attention of two brass-buttoned doormen standing sentry outside the Pierre. They can have no idea who I am or what I've done, but they leap to and give slapstick chase anyway, their cartoon hollerings—'Stop! Thief!'—sounding in my ears as I tear up the avenue, clutching my tulip and pen and laughing hysterically at the absurdity of it all—the circumstance, but also the dream about it." (p. 100)