Provides "a detailed analysis of the foundation, extent, management and achievements of the 120 botanic gardens, herbaria and botanic stations - from Hong Kong to British Honduras, Malacca to the Gold Coast, Fiji to Malta, Jamaica to Sydney - which flourished in the Victorian British empire. There young British curators faced the hazards of malaria, blackwater fever, occasionally a hostile indigenous population, snakes and dangerous animals, personal penury, and jealous settlers who usually opposed any suggestion of diversification from monoculture or of preserving the natural bush for ecological reasons" (publisher).