As a gardener who grew up near Philadelphia, I truly enjoyed learning about John Bartram, who is one of the 4 gardeners/botanists that the book follows. This book describes the intense plant trade between America and Britain and its dramatic effect on British gardening and the development of the "English garden" style that everyone aspires to achieve in their flower borders. The great Carl Linneaus is also presented as well as his binomial naming system for the classification of plants (and later animals too). The Endeavor voyage, which was captained by Capt. Cook and included Joseph Banks, who collected many plants from Australia and other far flung tropical lands, many of which had been never visited by Europeans. If you are a gardener, this book is wonderful and extremely interesting.