Download or read book French Botany in the Enlightenment written by R.L. Williams and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2013-06-29 with total page 295 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.