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Theresa M. Kelley, Clandestine Marriage: Botany And Romantic Culture. A Review By James C. Mckusick, James C. Mckusick

English Faculty Publications

Book review by James C. McKusick. Truly encyclopedic in scope, Clandestine Marriage traces the efflorescence of botanical discourse in the long Romantic period, from the foundation of the Linnaean system of classification in Systema Naturae (1735) through the first publication of Charles Darwin's Origin of Species (1859). Kelley offers a comprehensive historical view of botany as a distinct nexus of interaction between literature and science, showing how the characteristic certainties of Enlightenment science broke down under the pressure of newly-discovered plant specimens from distant parts of the world, new ways of understanding the taxonomic relationships among various plant species, and …