Science and Colonial Expansion: The Role of the British Royal Botanic GardensThis widely acclaimed book analyzes the political effects of scientific research as exemplified by one field, economic botany, during one epoch, the nineteenth century, when Great Britain was the world's most powerful nation. Lucile Brockway examines how the British botanic garden network developed and transferred economically important plants to different parts of the world to promote the prosperity of the Empire. In this classic work, available once again after many years out of print, Brockway examines in detail three cases in which British scientists transferred important crop plants--cinchona (a source of quinine), rubber and sisal--to new continents. Weaving together botanical, historical, economic, political, and ethnographic findings, the author illuminates the remarkable social role of botany and the entwined relation between science and politics in an imperial era. |
What people are saying - Write a review
We haven't found any reviews in the usual places.
Contents
The British Empire | 13 |
Seed and Plant Transfers | 35 |
General Intellectual Background | 61 |
Kew Gardens and the Scientific Elite | 77 |
Kew and Cinchona | 103 |
RubberA New Plantation Crop | 141 |
Amazonian Rubber on the World Market | 147 |
Wild Rubber Assessed | 156 |
Rubber and the Empire | 164 |
Conclusions | 185 |
Appendix List of the Staffs of the Royal Gardens Kew and | 197 |
203 | |
213 | |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
acres Africa agricultural America areas Asia bark became become botanic gardens botanists Brazil breadfruit Britain British British West Indies brought called capital Ceylon China cinchona coffee collection colonial Company continued countries crops cultivation Darwin director Dutch early East economic effect eighteenth Empire England English established Europe European example expansion export force forest French growing Hooker House important increased India Indies industry institutions interest islands Italy Java Joseph Kew Gardens knowledge labor land late later Latin London major malaria million monopoly native natural nineteenth century Office plantations planters plants political population production published quinine Royal rubber scientific seeds sent ships shows sisal social Society South species started stations success sugar Superintendent supply taken tion took trade transfer trees tropical turned United University West wild