In Bloom

Francesca Leoni has been curator of Islamic art at the Ashmolean Museum since 2011 (Yousef Jameel Curator, 2011–16). Prior to Oxford, she held curatorial, research and teaching posts at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (2008–11), Rice University (2008–10) and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (2007–8). Her interests include book arts; cross-cultural exchanges between the Islamic world, Europe and Asia; the history and circulation of technologies; occultism and divination; and modern and contemporary art from the Middle East. Professor Stephen Harris is an expert on the use of molecular markers in evolutionary and conservation biology, especially hybridisation, polyploidy, the evolutionary consequences of human-mediated plant movement and conservation genetics. He is also interested in the problems of using herbarium specimens as a source of DNA for evolutionary studies, and the history of botany.

• Foreword 7AcknowledgementsThe Tradescants and Their Circle 11David A. BerryIn Focus: The ‘Tradescants’ Orchard’, MS Ashmole 1461 28Mike WebbNetworks of Exchange: The Oxford Physic Garden 33Stephen HarrisIn Focus: Mary Somerset, Duchess of Beaufort 54India ColeBotany and Books 59Stephen HarrisIn Focus: Making the Flora Graeca 76Stephen HarrisArt and Botany 81Martyn RixIn Focus: The Bauer Brothers 106Stephen HarrisIn Focus: ‘Brilliant in the extreme’: The Botanical Drawingsof Sarah Anne Drake 110Lynn ParkerThe Business of Plants 115Stephen HarrisIn Focus: Tulips: Bulbs and Blooms between Asia and Europe 134Francesca LeoniBotany and Empire 139Vinita DamodaranIn Focus: Seven Eminent Botanists 157Matthew WinterbottomCreative Visions and Alternative Futures 161Francesca LeoniIn Focus: Oxford’s Changemakers 177Fran MonksCatalogue of Objects in the Exhibition 189Notes 210Select Bibliography 216Contributors 223Image credits 224