This edition elaborately discusses the letters between London based nurseryman William Malcolm (d.1798) and David van Royen (1727-1799), professor of Botany and the director of the Hortus Botanicus...Show moreThis edition elaborately discusses the letters between London based nurseryman William Malcolm (d.1798) and David van Royen (1727-1799), professor of Botany and the director of the Hortus Botanicus in Leiden, written between 1768-1773. The research focuses on how this correspondence gives insight in the study of botany in Leiden and the development of its botanical garden, the international plant trade and the extensive network of people involved, and the close relationship between science and commerce in the second half of the eighteenth century.Show less