In this well-designed volume of essays, Paul Fox introduces the reader to the world of nineteenth-century botanist, nurseryman and collector (professional, commercial and amateur) and to the ways in which six men, their patrons and rivals reworked the Australian landscape. Settlement changed the landscape at a time when the boundaries of the botanical world were constantly enlarged by the discovery of plants from Asia, the Pacific, the Americas and Australasia. Botanists followed the imperial flag, British botanists (led by Sir William Hooker) eagerly incorporated the new finds, and the appetite of a growing race of collectors was met by energetic nurserymen who combed the world for exotic plants.
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