Flower Hunters

Front Cover
Oxford University Press, 2008 - Biography & Autobiography - 332 pages
The flower hunters were intrepid explorers - remarkable, eccentric men and women who scoured the world in search of extraordinary plants from the middle of the seventeenth to the end of the nineteenth century, and helped establish the new science of botany. For these adventurers, the search for new, undiscovered plant specimens was something worth risking - and often losing - their lives for.

From the Douglas-fir and the monkey puzzle tree, to exotic orchids and azaleas, many of the plants that are now so familiar to us were found in distant regions of the globe, often in wild and unexplored country, in impenetrable jungle, and in the face of hunger, disease, and hostile locals. It was specimens like these, smuggled home by the flower hunters, that helped build the great botanical collections, and lay the foundations for the revolution in our understanding of the natural world that was to follow. Here, the adventures of eleven such explorers are brought to life, describing not only their extraordinary daring and dedication, but also the lasting impact of their discoveries both on science, and on the landscapes and gardens that we see today.
 

Contents

Introduction
1
John Ray 16271705
7
1 Carl Linnaeus 17071778
29
2 Joseph Banks 17431820
67
3 Francis Masson 17411805 and Carl Peter Thunberg 17421828
104
4 David Douglas 17991834
128
5 William Lobb 18091864 and Thomas Lobb 18171894
163
6 Robert Fortune 18121880
189
7 Marianne North 18301890
215
8 Richard Spruce 18171893
238
9 Joseph Dalton Hooker 18171911
269
Notes
300
Sources and Further Reading
312
Index
317
Copyright

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About the author (2008)

Mary Gribbin is a science writer. John R. Gribbin (born 19 March 1946) is a British science writer, an astrophysicist, and a visiting fellow in astronomy at the University of Sussex. The topical range of his prolific writings include quantum physics, human evolution, climate change, global warming, the origins of the universe, and biographies of famous scientists. He also writes science fiction. In 1984, Gribbin published In Search of Schrödinger's Cat: Quantum Physics and Reality, the book that he is best known for, which continues to sell well even after years of publication. At the 2009 World Conference of Science Journalists, the Association of British Science Writers presented Gribbin with their Lifetime Achievement award.

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