Book review by Diane Dorigan
Joseph Hooker Botanical Trailblazer by Pat Briggs with introduction by Jim Endersby
This richly illustrated little book follows Joseph Hookers career as he struggles to raise botany from a Victorian gentleman’s hobby to a recognized science. Through his world travels and network of collectors he identified more than 12,000 new plant species, published several illustrated books and journals on plants and eventually followed in his fathers’ footsteps as Director of Kew Garden. His good friend and colleague Charles Darwin, was so impressed with his work that as a legacy he funded the Index Kewensis, a comprehensive list of the world’s plant species which is still kept current today. The beautiful plant illustrations and landscapes reproduced here from his journals are accompanied by reproductions of lithographs and paintings done by Walter Hood Finch. This overview of Hookers life along with the reproduced illustrations, documents and photographs makes this little Kew publication one any fan of the history of botany would enjoy.
Paperback: 64 pages
Publisher: Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (February 2012)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1842464698
ISBN-13: 978-1842464694
Dimensions: 9.4 x 7.4 x 0.4 inches