Seeds of Blood and Beauty: Scottish Plant Collectors by Ann Lindsay

“Seeds of Blood and Beauty” follows the exploits of the great Scottish plant collectors of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries; men who left their native shores in search of exotic specimens, often risking life and limb for the sake of botany in some of the world’s most remote and dangerous places. Ann Lindsay introduces a large and varied cast of explorers, featuring men such as William Wright (1735-1810), who left the quiet Fife town of Crieff for Jamaica, and Aberdonian Francis Masson (1741-1805), who metamorphosed from an introspective under-gardener at Kew Gardens to an intrepid pioneer who faced gangs of bandits and poisonous snakes in Africa in pursuit of new botanical discoveries.As well as providing insights into the purposes and practicalities of scientific exploration over three centuries and examining the astonishing contribution these pioneers made in their field, “Seeds of Blood and Beauty” also shows how social change in Britain and abroad influenced botanical research and how this was reflected in Scotland’s gardens. The result is a fascinating and informative book combining biography, history and horticulture.