Botanical Riches

, . NB: This is a secondhand book in very good condition. See our FAQs for more information. Please note that the jacket image is indicative only. A description of our secondhand books is not always available. Please contact us if you have a question about this title.Author: Aitken, Richard Format: Hardback Number of Pages: 256 Gardeners' Chronicle on botanical exploration, 1881- 'Of all the deadly occupations this is surely the most fatal.' Explorer Frank Kingdon Ward on his first sighting of the blue poppy in Tibet, 1924- 'Suddenly I looked and there, like a blue panel dropped from heaven - a stream of blue poppies dazzling as sapphires in the pale light.' Century after century, intrepid plant hunters and botanists travelled to exotic climes, collecting seeds and specimens. Searching for plants with economic value, medicinal benefits, or purely for lavish display, these botanical explorers carried their treasures home to their own lands. Botanical Riches is magnificently illustrated with some of the world's most glorious engraved, lithographed and hand-coloured botanical illustrations. From the earliest Renaissance herbals, to the more elaborate and beautiful volumes from the birth of printing, books celebrating plants from far-off lands brought with them a sense of wonder. Travel to ancient Sumer and discover where the first grains were domesticated for agriculture, through Egypt, the land of papyrus, to the Silk Road and the rice paddies of the secretive East, to the tulips of th.…