Pursuit of Plants, In: Experiences of Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Century Plant Collectors

In Surinam plant hunter F.W. Hostmann allowed vampire bats to suck his toes; in west Africa William Grant Milne was forced to sell his clothes and travel naked for 200 miles; Thomas Drummond was attacked by a bear in the North American woods; George Forrest narrowly escaped rampaging lamas in western China; and, in Fiji, Berthold Seemann recorded which plants cannibals used as an accompaniment to human flesh. These and other incidents are recorded in this compilation of fascinating first-hand accounts of the experiences of nineteenth and early-twentieth-century collectors in their pursuit of plants from around the world. Extracted from journals and letters, some previously unpublished, the accounts are a mix of adventure, of sometimes grim but always captivating and occasionally humorous images of a lost world, and of stories of the practical problems associated with plant collecting.

AUSTRALIA & NEW ZEALAND: R.W. Lawrence, J. Drummond, W. Colenso, F.W.L. Leichhardt, F.J.H. Mueller, W.E.P. Giles, D. Sullivan, W.B. Spencer, F.J. Gillen, M. Koch, W.A. Michell.

pp. xvi, 351 illusts. First Edition. FINE copy. #1020