The World Was My Garden: Travels of a Plant Explorer

xiv, 494 pp. 9 3/4 x 7 1/2. In the world of botany, there are not too many names bigger than David Fairchild's -- he was responsible for the introduction of several hundreds of thousands of plant species to the United States, he was a plant explorer for the US Department of Agriculture, and he married the younger daughter of Alexander Graham Bell. He also served on the National Geographic Society board of trustees. His home on Biscayne Bay, which he named The Kampong, was the subject of another of his books, The World Grows Round My Door, and later became part of the National Tropical Botanical Garden. This volume includes photographs of Fairchild and several of his patrons and colleagues, in laboratories and in the field in places such as Java, Indonesia; Corsica; Malta; Muscat; Nova Scotia; Japan; etc. Also notable are several photographs of Alexander Graham Bell, and the fact that almost all the photographs (nearly 200) were taken by David Fairchild himself. Should be of equal interest to collectors of important botanical and natural history works, as well as fans of early 20th century travelogues.