The book describes the innovations that enabled botany, in the Eighteenth century, to emerge as an independent science, independent from medicine and herbalism. This encompassed the development of a reliable system for plant classification and the invention of a nomenclature that could be universally applied and understood. The key that enabled Linnaeus to devise his classification system was the discovery of the sexuality of plants. The book, which is intended for the educated general reader, proceeds to illustrate how many aspects of French life were permeated by this revolution in botany...

This volume completes a trilogy meant to be a commentary on the botanophilia that captured the literate public in 18th-century France. Enthusiastic public support for any governmental initiative likely to expand botanical knowledge was an expression of immense curiosity about the natural world beyond Europe. It amounted to a quest for universal knowledge that could benefit all mankind: useful knowledge that could improve the human condition in this life.

The book describes the innovations that enabled botany, in the Eighteenth century, to emerge as an independent science, independent from medicine and herbalism. This encompassed the development of a reliable system for plant classification and the invention of a nomenclature that could be universally applied and understood. The key that enabled Linnaeus to devise his classification system was the discovery of the sexuality of plants. The book, which is intended for the educated general reader, proceeds to illustrate how many aspects of French life were permeated by this revolution in botany...

Royal Instructions for Scientific Exploration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 The French Gardener Overseas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .; . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 The Voyage of La Perouse: Part 1, From Brest to Monterey Bay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 Part 2, From Monterey Bay to Botany Bay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73 Adventures and Misadventures: The Bizarre Story of the Dupetit-Th9uars...

This publication comprises the 170 letters written by the Abbe Dominique Chaix to Dr Dominique Villars between 1772 and 1799, when they were collaborating on the publication of the first flora for the old province of Dauphine. The letters reveal the uncertainties of plant classification in the late-18th century, but, more generally, the penetration of the Enlightenment into a remote, alpine region of France.