Botanical gardens brought together the great diversity of the Earth's flora. They displaced nature from forest and foothill and re-arranged it to reveal something of the scientific principles underpinning the apparent chaos of the wild. Through a study of three botanical gardens, belonging to the University of Cambridge, the Royal Dublin Society and the Belfast Natural History Society, this book shows how the design and display of such gardens was not determined by scientific principles alone. It explores how the final outcome involved a complex interplay of ideas about place, identity, empire, botanical science and aesthetics, creating spaces that would educate the mind as well as please the senses. This highly engaging book offers a wealth of fresh insights into both the history and development of botanical gardens as well as connections between science and aesthetics.

Mobility was central to imperialism, from the human movements entailed in exploration, travel and migration to the information, communications and commodity flows vital to trade, science, governance and military power. While historians have written on exploration, commerce, imperial transport and communications networks, and the movements of slaves, soldiers and scientists, few have reflected upon the social, cultural, economic and political significance of mobile practices, subjects and infrastructures that underpin imperial networks, or examined the qualities of movement valued by imperial powers and agents at different times. This collection explores the intersection of debates on imperial relations, colonialism and empire with emerging work on mobility. In doing this, it traces how the movements of people, representations and commodities helped to constitute the British empire from the late-eighteenth century through to the Second World War. -- .