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Botany: A Blooming History

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Timothy Walker

Chris Salt

Paul Overton

Graeme Thomson

Botany: A Blooming History: Episode 1: A Confusion of Names

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Episode 1: A Confusion of Names

A Confusion of Names

BBC Four - Botany: A Blooming History, A Confusion of Names

How the work of Carl Linnaeus, Phillip Miller and John Ray created the science of botany.

Timothy Walker reveals how the work of Carl Linnaeus, Phillip Miller and John Ray unlocked the mysteries of the plant kingdom and created the science of botany.

What makes plants grow is a simple enough question. The answer turns out to be one of the most complicated and fascinating stories in science and took over 300 years to unravel.

Timothy Walker, director of Oxford University Botanic Garden, reveals how the breakthroughs of Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus, Chelsea gardener Phillip Miller and English naturalist John Ray created the science of botany. Between them, these quirky, temperamental characters unlocked the mysteries of the plant kingdom, and they began to glimpse a world where bigger, better and stronger plants could be created. Nurseryman Thomas Fairchild created the world's first artificial hybrid flower - an entirely new plant that didn't exist in nature.

Today, botanists continue the search for new flowers, better crops and improved medicines to treat life-threatening diseases.

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Factual: Science & Nature: Nature & Environment

The story of how man came to understand the natural order of the plant world.

Series which tells the story of how people came to understand the natural order of the plant world, and how the quest to discover how plants grow uncovered the secret to life on the planet.

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Botany: A Blooming History

Episode 1: A Confusion of Names

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