Gardens of Empire

Book excerpt: Gardens of Empire is the first book which gives a detailed analysis of the foundation, extent, management and achievements of the 120 botanic gardens, herbaria and botanic stations - from Hong Kong to British Honduras, Malacca to the Gold Coast, Fiji to Malta, Jamaica to Sydney - which flourished in the Victorian British empire. There young British curators faced the hazards of malaria, blackwater fever, occasionally a hostile indigenous population, snakes and dangerous animals, personal penury, and jealous settlers who usually opposed any suggestion of diversification from monoculture or of preserving the natural bush for ecological reasons. This is the story of a lost world - where pith-helmeted botanists tamed jungles and supplied Kew with the flora of the empire.