Jean-Paul Vincent

underpinned publication” of this book, says Aitken. Most of the illustrations Aitken depicts show the artists’ love of detail: the structure of the veins of the leaf, the relation of the leaf to the stem and the arrangement of the seeds in the pod, and everything to do with the composition of the flower. From the subtitle of the book, you might expect a collection of anecdotes but the book is more like an overview of the whole history of botanical exploration and its intersection with the age of the great global empires, with a few anecdotes thrown in. He highlights the eventual economic importance of some of these floral forays. Some parts of the world yielded an extraordinary number of food plants — so large that it is hard to imagine the cuisine of India before it received such Central and Southern American contributions as the chilli or the tomato. But he also highlights other reactions. Considering the distinctiveness of the Australian flora, it is surprising that early British and French botanists were disappointed at what they found. Aitken comments: “A perceived lack of edible plants was commonly cited, yet this belied the rich array of ‘bush tucker’ plants that had sustained Australia’s Aboriginals for thousands of years.” But the strength of this book lies in its illustrations, which bring us close to, but do not include the age of photography. It is interesting that photography has its weaknesses as a method of illustrating botany. It is still the case that an artist may be a more helpful guide. “Botanical Riches is thus a vehicle for bringing this rich legacy to wider notice and in so doing to share the joy of these plants and their depiction with new audiences,” writes Aitken. “In many cultures... there is a pleasing conjunction between plants and their images.”