"Botanomania" is the name of an obsession possessed by people who fanatically hunt and collect plants. For hundreds of years, these collectors have traveled all over the world and endured appalling hardships to pursue their passion. Coming from many countries and speaking many languages, they hunted for and brought home interesting, exotic, and helpful plants for their own gardens, the gardens of their patrons, and royal gardens, which usually evolved into public botanical gardens. All were helped enormously by Carl Linnaeus (1707 - 1778), a Swedish scientist, who developed the universally accepted and understood Latin classification system for all of the natural world - including plants. Anita Silvey reveals the hair-raising adventures of these intrepid plant hunters. She synthesizes information, history and indomitable personalities into a thoroughly readable, downright exciting text.