The Plant Hunters

Toby Musgrave, Chris Gardner, Will Musgrave

ISBN 10: 0706377532 / ISBN 13: 9780706377538

Published by Ward Lock, Londo, 1998

About this Item

A fine first edition, first impression, first printing of Toby Musgrave, Chris Gardner and Will Musgrave¿s book The Plant Hunters in hardback cloth covers with a fine dust jacket, published in Great Britain by Ward Lock in 1998. This fine book has green cloth covered boards, titles in gold on the spine with light green photographic end papers. The tight, bright book has no marks, bumps or writings over its 224 pages, apart from a small owners initials and the year 98 on the facing end paper. The book is as new and unread. The book is published on high quality paper to complement the many photographs, illustrations and maps. The copyright page states copyright Musgrave, Gardner & Musgrave 1998 indicating the first edition of this book. The fine green dust jacket is not price clipped and no price is shown as the book is also distributed in USA and Canada. The titles are in mustard and orange on a green framed panel on the front, and in mustard and beige on a grey spine. The front and back of the jacket feature evocative photographs of typical terrain from the Lost Gardens of Heligan, where the first two authors were involved in the restoration. The authors, specialists in horticulture and garden history, trace the journeys of ten of the most significant plant hunters over the past two hundred years. Their stories are told with style and handsomely illustrated. Several zoomable photos are attached to the book listing on my AbeBooks website. Clear removable archival film protects the pristine dust jacket. Seller Inventory # 000189

Bibliographic Details

Title: The Plant Hunters

Publisher: Ward Lock, Londo

Publication Date: 1998

Binding: Hardcover

Condition: Fine

Dust Jacket Condition: Fine

Edition: 1st Edition

About this title

Synopsis:

This is the story of the men who discovered and brought back a wealth of exotic new plants. Journeying through remote and beautiful lands, often in great peril, they collected the plants that shaped western garden design for 200 years. The stories are illustrated with portraits, photographs and maps. The book traces the journeys of 10 of the most significant plant hunters, from the 18th century to the last of the professionals, Frank Kingdon-Ward. It travels with Captain Cook and Sir Joseph Banks to South America, New Zealand and Australia. It treks over 9000 miles across North America with David Douglas, who laid claim to 200 species. It also explores California, South America and South East Asia with the Lobb brothers, and climbs into the Himalaya with Joseph Hooker in search of spectacular rhododendrons. It follows Robert Fortune, as he smuggles tea plants out of China, the foundation of a vast cash crop vital to the development of the Empire. These and other stories vividly bring to life the pioneering work of plant hunters.

Reviews:

Ever wonder how flowers from all over the world ended up in the same modern gardens? The plant hunters are the answer: Sir Joseph Banks, "the father of modern plant hunting," circled the globe with Captain Cook, bringing back rubescent evergreens from Tierra del Fuego and tall, "swordlike, leathery" New Zealand flax. From Kew Gardens in 18th-century London, Banks set up "a systematic, worldwide plant hunting program" that brought 7000 species of plants into habitats they would never have reached. Banks's prot g Francis Masson toted the belladona lily and the cycad from South Africa to London. Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker introduced rhododendrons from the Himalayas, thereby shaping British gardening throughout the 1860s. And George Forrest endured civil war and mountain hardships in his treks across Yunnan, China, bringing back for his pains the spectacular scarlet Primula and a star-shaped gentian with the deep blue tint of outer space. The authors devote a chapter to each of these men, and five other admiring chapters to other explorers, showing what each famous plant hunter underwent to bring prize flora to Britain, and what effect each hunter's discoveries had on British landscaping and gardening. In the spirit of the Victorian amateur, this book doesn't address such questions as whether these exciting exotics damaged the ecosystems to which plant hunters brought them, or what these finds contributed to fields other than landscape gardening. It offers, instead, stories of daring explorers alongside beautiful pictures of plants and of the spectacular landscapes from which these men fetched back the stems and flowers that gardeners love so well. 90 color, 15 b&w illustrations.

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