Explorers’ Botanical Notebook

November 8, 2016 By John E. Riutta in Newly Noted Books Tags: book, botanical, Botany, Collishaw, explorers, firefly, Fourié, history, natural, News, notebook, plant, Thinard

For those who like a bit of fun with their education, I am delighted to report on a recently arrived book that melds very clever, lovely imagery with a remarkable collection of information on the history of botanical history: the Explorers’ Botanical Notebook: In the Footsteps of Theophrastus, Marco Polo, Linnaeus, Flinders, Darwin, Speke and Hooker from Firefly Books.

Written in French by Florence Thinard and translated into English by Barb Collishaw, and featuring photographs – including the brilliant cover designed to be the very likeness of a traditional plant press – by Yannick Fourié, this treasure-box of natural history includes chapters describing the lives, explorations, and discoveries of over eighty pioneering botanists.

John E. Riutta

Founder and publisher of The Well-read Naturalist. Inveterate autodidact. Has repeatedly been found out standing in many fields. Plays well with otters.

→ John E. Riutta

Recent Reviews

The Marvelously Multifaceted Mr. Newton
January 22, 2023
Most of us likely first heard the name Isaac Newton when we were in primary school. For some, it may have been in a classroom; for others it may have been while viewing a television program – most likely a cartoon. However, in most all instances, I’d be willing to wager that the name was […]
Then There Were Dragons
November 20, 2022
The phrase “here there be dragons,” so famously seen on old maps indicating places where there were great and mysterious dangers to be found, was not so very long ago not simply a metaphor. In fact, no less an authority on natural philosophy (what would later become known as natural history) than Linnaeus himself included […]
Meeting Your Local Spiders
October 9, 2022
When it comes to lists of common phobias, arachnophobia – the fear of spiders – almost always makes the top ten, and more often than not, the top five. Some have even argued that the fear of spiders, like the fear of snakes, is an innate fear – people are simply born with it thanks […]