The flower of empire : an Amazonian water lily, the quest to make it bloom, and the world it created / Tatiana Holway.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Holway, Tatiana M.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Victoria amazonica.

Botanical gardens--England--History--19th century.

Botanical gardens.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (339 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

New York : Oxford University Press, 2013.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

In 1837, while charting the Amazonian country of Guiana for Great Britain, German naturalist Robert Schomburgk discovered an astounding ""vegetable wonder""--a huge water lily whose leaves were five or six feet across and whose flowers were dazzlingly white. In England, a horticultural nation with a mania for gardens and flowers, news of the discovery sparked a race to bring a live specimen back, and to bring it to bloom. In this extraordinary plant, named Victoria regia for the newly crowned queen, the flower-obsessed British had found their beau ideal. In The Flower of Empire, Tatiana Holway

Contents:

Prologue: Victoria's floras

Terra incognita

Perils and wonders

A floral sensation

An international tempest

Return to the wild

Cultivating Kew Gardens

His grace and his gardener

The flowering of Chatsworth

Golden square

Evergreens

Salvaging Kew Gardens

Trading favors

Trials and errors

The great stove

Reviving Kew Gardens.

Return to El Dorado

Paxton, inc

First bloom

Nature's engineer

Empire under glass

Epilogue: Victoria regia redux.

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on metadata supplied by the publisher and other sources.

ISBN:

1-299-15635-5

0-19-970604-2

OCLC:

829460091