Flower Hunters
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.95 (761 Votes) |
| Asin | : | 0192807188 |
| Format Type | : | paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 332 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2015-04-04 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
Together, they have written many acclaimed books, including Ice Age, FitzRoy, Stardust, and Big Numbers. Mary Gribbin and John Gribbin are among the best-known current popular science writers. John is also a Visiting Fellow at the University of Sussex, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, and the author of books including The Universe: A Biography, In Search of Schrodinger's Cat, and Science: A History.. Mary is a Visiting Fellow at the University o
Hunting Flowers I have been an avid reader of John and Mary Gribbin for a number of years. The Flower Hunters is another fine example of their work. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and would recommend it to all of my friends. Being someone who generally reads hard-core science, I found it an interesting distraction to get away from the technical side of writing.I applaud their efforts and hope that they keep up the great work.Mr. Bill. Not what I expected Mehetabelle The book contains eleven biographical sketches of the botanists, not about their work. Maybe it's the British scholarly style, but it starts slow and stays slow. I wanted to know what these pioneering botanists found, or how they did their work, how they advanced botany.Let's see, what is positive about this book? The profiles sometimes mention personal traits of the botanists, give historical context about times with hereditary religious and academic posts, the difficulties of long distance travel The cover is very pretty, the pages are heavy paper, the typeface looks nice This book departs from John Gribbin's other s. Michael Papay said Very well presented, very well researched, and an enjoyable read.. Mary and John Gribbin have given us a gift in their researching and writing this book.Of the three "plant hunting" books I have read, this is unquestionably the best and most interesting.Modern botany wants us to begin where Linnaeus wanted us to begin, with him, but Mary and John Gribbin take us back to the truth, to the inimitable John Ray. From there the Gribbins portray the fascinating lives of plant explorers and the importance of their contributions to horticulture, medicine, and agriculture. It is not a textbook, but a well told story woven together from the chapters of many lives and countless adventures.I foun
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. 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. 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.. 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
All rights reserved. Robert Fortune was sent to China to collect tea plants for the East India Company. Richard Spruce obtained seeds of the South American tree that produces quinine, the drug used to treat malaria. The adventures of these botanists, who often risked their lives in search of exotic species, should make for exciting reading, but the Gribbins' dry biographical sketches fail to capture the drama. With David Douglas, sent to North America by the Horticultural Society of London to obtain plants to sell to affluent gardeners, came the age of plant exploration for profit. . The others came from Great Britain, including Joseph Banks, who sailed with Captain Cook, and Francis Masson, sent to South Africa by the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew. Marianne North searched several continents for material for her flower paintings. (June)Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. Joseph Hooker brou