Planting the World

A global history of botany and plant collecting in 18th century based on original research in many languages. Botany was both the darling and powerhouse of the Enlightenment. As European ships began to venture across the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific oceans, discovery bloomed. Bounties of new plants were brought back, and their arrival transformed Europe's science, industry, diet and fashion - not to mention private gardens. Joseph Banks led this charge. As botanist for Cook's great voyage to the South Pacific on The Endeavour, he ordered the collection of plants on an enormous scale, armed with the vision - as a child of the Enlightenment - that scientific advancement was the key to political and economic progress. Banks saw that to travel physically was to travel intellectually - and his thinking was as intrepid as Cook's seafaring. He ordered the expeditions of Masson to Cape Colony, Staunton to China, James Bowie to Australia, Bligh to Tahiti and Jamaica. He also advised on and developed what is now the largest and most diverse botanical collections in the world - Kew Gardens. In a rip-roaring expedition around the world, and based on original sources in many languages, Jordan Goodman gives an epic history of how adventure, discovery, science became the roots of the world.