© The Author 2009. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Annals of Botany Company. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org
The aliveness of plants: the Darwins at the dawn of plant science
The aliveness of plants: the Darwins at the dawn of plant scienceP. Ayres 2008.
London: Pickering and Chatto. £60.00 (hardback). 227 pp.
| The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below. |
The aliveness of plants is a rather awkward title to a highly readable and absorbing book. It describes the scientific and personal lives of Charles Darwin, his grandfather Erasmus and his son Francis – the principal botanical Darwins (other members of the family were interested in plants too). The impact of the Darwins' considerable works on today's plant science is also assessed. These themes together make a very appealing combination and the book has a determined but informal style that should attract an appreciative readership within and outside professional plant science. The author, Peter Ayres, is himself a distinguished experimental botanist and this may well explain his evident empathy with these highly influential men who combined theoretical rigour and originality with a strong work ethic and who backed their ideas with detailed observation, practical experiment and convincing writing. But Ayres is fascinated too by the evolving social environment in which
E-mail Mike.Jackson@bristol.ac.uk