British Botanists [antikvár]

The Old Physic Garden of the Society of Apothecaries at Chelsea, 1750introductoryBotany is perhaps the least sensational of sciences. The importance of the vegetable kingdom in human affairs is basic rather than immediate, and only rarelyas in the case of penicillindoes plant science enjoy the bold type of a headline. It follows that the part played by Britain on the botanical stage, and even the names of the actors, are unknown to most Britons. Nevertheless, that part has been an outstanding one.It is a favourite game of armchair cricketers to pick a "best-ever" team. If historians of botany were to unbend to this extent no selector, of whatever nationality, would omit the names of John Ray, Stephen Hales and Robert Brown, while Nehemiah Grew and Joseph Hooker would also be strong candidates. Britain, then, would contribute over 25 per cent, to such a world teamwhich is some measure of our high place in botanical history.In this volume I have interpreted botany as meaning the study of plants as plants and have touched on agriculture and horticulture only when essential to the main theme. Even so it has been difficult, in the available space, to cover the ground at all adequately. What follows is not a continuous story of British botany; rather a few selected scenes strung together on a thin historical thread.