"Rubber" by Edith A. Browne explores the multifaceted world of rubber, tracing its journey from a natural resource to a global commodity. The book delves into the historical significance of rubber, highlighting its impact on industries and economies worldwide. Browne's narrative is rich with anecdotes and insights, illustrating how rubber has shaped modern life, from the tires on our vehicles to the soles of our shoes. Through meticulous research, she uncovers the environmental and social ...

The Blossoming Bookshelf gathers forty-three classic texts into a capacious history of gardening, botany, horticulture, and the cultural imagination of plants. Its range extends from practical manuals on cultivation, soils, orchards, and landscape design to reflective nature writing, botanical inquiry, travel-inflected observation, and accounts of public and domestic gardens. The volume's significance lies in this productive interchange between utility and aesthetics: advice on raising pla...

In her groundbreaking work, "Rubber," Edith A. Browne masterfully intertwines environmental and industrial narratives to explore the multifaceted implications of rubber production on both society and nature. Set against the backdrop of the 19th and 20th centuries, Browne employs a prose style that is both lyrical and incisive, skillfully delving into the complexities of colonial exploitation, ecological degradation, and the socio-economic transformations triggered by this ubiquitous materi...

When HMS Beagle sailed out of Devonport on 27 December 1831, Charles Darwin was twenty-two and setting off on the voyage of a lifetime. His journal, here reprinted in a shortened form, shows a naturalist making patient observations concerning geology, natural history, people, places and events. Volcanoes in the Galapagos, the Gossamer spider of Patagonia and the Australasian coral reefs – all are to be found in these extraordinary writings. The insights made here were to set in mo...

The Voyage of the Beagle is a title commonly given to the book written by Charles Darwin as his Journal and Remarks, bringing him considerable fame and respect. The title refers to the second survey expedition of the ship HMS Beagle, which set sail from Plymouth Sound on 27 December 1831 under the command of Captain Robert FitzRoy, R.N..While the expedition was originally planned to last two years, it lasted almost five—the Beagle did not return until 2 October 1836. Darwin spent m...

Supported by a family inheritance that gave her £500 a year, Mary Henrietta Kingsley traveled to Africa to complete the book her father had started. The subject was the culture of Africa and Kingsley stayed with local people while she learned to survive in the African jungles, studied cannibal tribes, discovered new species of fish, and climbed Mount Cameroon by a route untouched by any European before her. Kingsley's ideas greatly influenced European ideas about Africa and the African peo...

From Natural History Review, vol. iii. 1863.

One of the most impressive of all Victorian scientists but also a marvellous writer, Bates' (1825-1892) account of his years in the upper reaches of the Amazon is almost too good to be true - a great monument to human inquisitiveness as he battles great hoards of malevolent reptiles and insects in his quest for ever more obscure specimens on ever more narrow and creeper-choked tributaries.Great Journeys allows readers to travel both around the planet and back through the centuries ...

These three major works by the father of evolutionary theory encompass his life, journey through the Galapagos, and landmark work on natural selection.On the Origin of Species: In one of the most important contributions to scientific knowledge, Charles Darwin puts forth the theory that species evolve over time through the process of natural selection. Drawn from extensive research performed on various creatures living in the Galápagos Islands, his research...

Racked with fever, virtually broke and earning a precarious living through sending back to London the plumes of beautiful birds, Wallace (1823-1913) ultimately became one of the most heroic and admirable of all scientist-explorers. Whether living with Hill Dyaks or hunting Orang-Utans or sailing on a junk to the unbelievably remote Aru islands, Wallace opens our eyes to a now long vanished world.Great Journeys allows readers to travel both around the planet and back through the cen...

Eating Dirt in Venezuela - Alexander von HumboldtGeographer, geologist, naturalist, anthropologist, physician and philosopher, Baron von Humboldt brought to exploration a greater range of enquiry than any contemporary. Also an indomitable traveller, particularly in the Orinoco/Amazon basin (1799-1804), he often invited danger but always in the cause of scientific observation. The interest of his narratives therefore lies primarily ...

This short piece by the noted naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace, describes the nineteenth century view of the Birds of Paradise, their habits as known at the time. Taken from Wallaces Numerous trips to the south seas. Alfred Russel Wallace, OM, FRS (8 January 1823– 7 November 1913) was a British naturalist, explorer, geographer, anthropologist and biologist. He is best known for independently conceiving the theory of evolution by natural selection and co-publishing a paper on the ...