Botanical Revelation European encounters with Australian before Darwin David J Mabberley

David Mabberley never ceases to amaze us - this time not only documenting Australian collections prior to Charles Darwin’s arrival in Sydney in January 1836 but also appraising reactions of Europeans to Australian flora and fauna that was so different from that of their home countries. Botanical Revelation – European encounters with Australian plants before Darwin is based on Peter Crossing’s collection of antiquarian books and paintings, particularly those that recorded Australia’s rich botanical heritage.

Botanical Revelation is not a book to read in a hurry, rather it is a captivating mix of history, botany, horticulture, interactions between the personalities of the men of science and the consequences of the voyages of exploration to the indigenous communities of Australia. This is a book to be enjoyed slowly, at leisure, so that one can gradually absorb and delight in the vast amount of information detailed within its pages. For most of us, Cook and Banks and the 1770 plant collections from Botany Bay are well known, but David takes us back to 1605, and the arrival of the Dutch ship Duyfken, captained by Willem Janszoon, on the west coast of Cape York, followed 6 months later by the first record of an Australian plant, a description of a yellow plum, Ximenia americana, possibly growing on Sassie Island in Torres Strait, by Spanish Nobleman Don Diego de Prado y Tovar, during the 1606 voyage of exploration by Luis Váez de Torres. In 1697, almost 100 years later, Dutch captain Willem de Vlamingh, explored Rottnest Island and the Swan River, now home to Perth in , where two plant specimens, truncata, and were collected, the latter now held in the Conservatoire et Jardin Botaniques in Geneva, Switzerland.

There follows not only a detailed history of plant collecting in Australia, but the reactions of European botanists to the collections as they arrived in Europe, a veritable Who’s Who of explorers, botanists, artists, horticulturists and nurserymen who collected, curated, illustrated, promoted and grew the astonishing newly discovered species. These included William Dampier, John Ray, Sydney Parkinson, Matthew Flinders, Arthur Phillip, William Curtis, Allan Cunningham, La Perouse, Labillardiére, Redouté, Robert Brown, Ferdinand Bauer and many, many more. Horticulture played an important role too and new arrivals were eagerly propagated and grown in English and European gardens. Many growers of Australian native plants may well be surprised at the great diversity of Australian species grown in Europe at that time.

The illustrations in the book are exquisite, made all the more accessible to us by the provision of both the name originally designated for the illustration, and the present day accepted name. The book is a treasure trove for those who of us who not only hold dear the uniqueness and beauty of Australian flora but also have a passion for understanding the complex and sometimes sensitive and uncomfortable history of its discovery.

Botanical Revelation is published by NewSouth Publishing, University of New South Wales Press Limited, and is currently available from The Library Shop of the State Library of New South Wales in Macquarie Street, Sydney.