This book contains many well-documented stories – of the one-armed Roezl being trapped on an active volcano, of the fashion-concious Ruiz taking a silver chamber pot on his expedition to Peru, of the English collector being murdered by his native wife. Of a modest Lincolnshire lass, and the bombastic and treacherous German taxonomist. Stories of the orchid nurseries of Linden, Loddiges and Low, of Bull, Williams, Sander, Veitch and Booth – Booth? – and orchids, orchids, orchids. A history of Masdevallias and so much more. The stories behind the names of the orchids we grow and love.
Neither a cultural guide nor encyclopedia, this book is factual and with over 1000 coloured illustrations, some never previously published, is a joy to the eye. It contains a wealth of biographical details of both plants and people, and the stories it contains will captivate the interest of non-orchid buffs.