Gardening / Garden History
Book Details

Botanical Riches

Stories of Botanical Exploration

Richard Aitken

With illustrations of extraordinary splendour and beauty, Botanical Riches is a colourful history and enthralling tale of botanical exploration.

Awards

2007 APA Book Design Awards Shortlist: Best Designed Non-fiction book (illustrated)

Opinion

"Open this book at any page and it is difficult not to be impressed . . . As a reference source for the
dedicated botanist, or a coffee table book for anyone with a passing interest in plants, history or art, this book is a must." The Newcastle Herald 04/11/2006

'a magnificent collection of engravings, lithographs, paintings and drawings. . .An enthralling story' - Country Style 25/12/06

"Botanical Riches is aptly named. Exquisite botanical illustrations, sumptous colour, wonderful stories of exploration and discover - this book has is all . . . a rare treat." Australian Geographic

About this Title

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 the Ottoman Empire. Then voyage through the rich wonders of the New World, the exciting flora of the Cape of Good Hope, the showy rhododendrons of the Himalayas, and the eucalypts and banksia of Australia.

With illustrations of extraordinary splendour and beauty, Botanical Riches is a colourful history and enthralling tale of botanical exploration.

About the Author

Richard Aitken is a Melbourne-based architect, curator, and historian. He has prepared conservation plans for many of Australia's most significant historic gardens, including the botanic gardens of Adelaide, Melbourne, and Sydney. He is a member of the editorial advisory board of Garden History, journal of the British-based Garden History Society. His publications include The Oxford Companion to Australian Gardens (2002), Gardenesque: a celebration of Australian gardening (2004) and Seeds of Change: an illustrated history of Adelaide Botanic Garden (2006).

978-0-522-85201-1