A bold new history of how botany and the global collection of plants – centered on Kew Gardens and under the guidance of Joseph Banks – transformed the earth.

Botany was the favorite and the driving force of the eighteenth century. As European ships crossed the Atlantic, the Indian, and the Pacific oceans, discovery flourished. The quantities of new plants returned not only meant an improvement in bouquets – they offered a new scientific frontier that would change the industry, medicine, dietary habits, and fashion of Europe.

Joseph Banks was the engine of this significant change. As a botanist for James Cook's great expedition to the South Pacific with the Endeavour, Banks collected plants on a massive scale, armed with the philosophy - as a child of the Enlightenment - that natural travel led to intellectual progress. His thinking was as bold as Cook's navigation: he funded radically influential and physically demanding expeditions, such as those of Francis Masson in the Cape, George Staunton in China, George Cayley in Australia, and William Bligh in Tahiti and Jamaica, among many others.

Jordan Goodman's epic story tracks these seafarers and their impact on Europe while taking us back to the early years of Kew Gardens, which Banks developed with dedication throughout his life, transforming them into one of the largest and most diverse botanical gardens in the world.

In a thrilling global mission, based on original sources in many languages, Goodman provides a significant story of how the discoveries made by Banks and his collectors advanced scientific understanding across the globe.

Pages: 560, Dimensions: 12.9x12.9cm