French Botany in the Enlightenment: The Ill-fated Voyages of La Pérouse and His Rescuers (International Archives of the History of Ideas Archives internationales d'histoire des idées)

This volume completes a trilogy meant to be a commentary on the botanophilia that captured the literate public in 18th-century France. Enthusiastic public support for any governmental initiative likely to expand botanical knowledge was an expression of immense curiosity about the natural world beyond Europe. It amounted to a quest for universal knowledge that could benefit all mankind: useful knowledge that could improve the human condition in this life.