Title: Planting paradise : cultivating the garden 1501-1900 /
Authors: Harris, Stephen, 1966-
Publisher: Bodleian Library,
Year: 2011
Subjects: Gardening History; Gardens History; Gardening Social aspects History.; Gardens Social aspects History.
Abstract: Planting Paradise reveals how the botanic gardens of early modern Europe were largely viewed as a means of supplying surgeons with medicines but by the seventeenth and eighteenth century the interest in gardens and cultivating exotic plants had spread to all levels of society. As global exploration took Europeans all over the world, gardens became a tapestry of many diverse botanical histories—some plants were native, some were introduced from foreign lands, and others were bred in the garden. Planting Paradise shows how the garden became a symbol of human interactions within the botanical world.
Contents: People and plant diversity -- Learning about plants -- Botanical mysticism, mythology and monsters -- Utilitarian plants -- Plants as power -- Acclimatising plants -- Understanding plants.