Flowers from Abroad
Wilfrid Blunt explains the history of British flora's natives and invasives
In making a survey of the introduction of plants into British gardens and greenhouses there seem to be two possible methods of approach: to trace, generation by generation, the additions made to our stock of plants; or to discuss in turn the contributions of the various countries that have supplemented our beautiful, but limited, native flora. These two methods are not so different as might at first sight appear; for as new territories were brought within reach of botanical observation, they yielded their treasures to our store: Europe, the Near East, Mexico and Peru, North America, the Cape, Australasia, Central and South America and the East Indies, and finally Japan and China, were successively combed for plants that would endure our treacherous climate or whose superior beauty justified their inclusion in the stove-house. Such is the rough sequence of discovery.
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