A History of the Orchid

by Merle A. Reinikka

An engaging account of humanity's growing fascination with orchids from ancient times onward, together with a biographical gallery of 50 great scientists, naturalists, and explorers who contributed to our knowledge of orchids. The nomenclature and bibliography have been updated for this edition.

This book is only available through print on demand. All interior art is black and white.

Genres: Nonfiction, Nature

348 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 1995

Reviews

[Jim Gallen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read “A History of the Orchid” in preparation for a book club meeting. The first third of it narrates the historical development of the orchid. Their emergence as biological entities, increasing interest, classification, its commercial rise and scientific development tell the story how orchids became the popular flower that they are today. The last two-thirds consists of brief biographies of man (Yes, no women) whose played key roles in orchid history.

For someone who is really into orchids, their types, names, origins and discoverers this work would be a gold mine. Not being an orchidologist, many of these pages were blurs. What I found of interest was confirmation of my impression that much of nineteenth century science consisted in the identification of and differentiation among species. The dominance of British, German and Low Countries’ orchidologists reflects an era in which the United States was a follower rather than a leader. The only scientist’s name that I recognized was Charles Darwin. 305 pages is a long read for what I got out of it.

[Dyan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Approximately two thirds of the book is just biographies of persons influential in the history of orchids. This is not exactly what was "advertised" by the book, and I found it boring and repetitive. The first third is mostly a botanical/biological history of orchids rather than a cultural/social history, which was admittedly what I was hoping for. Overall it was just "eh".