Wild Flowers of Leazes Park

If ever you catch quite a beginner and want to give him a taste for botany tell him to make a perfect list of some little field or wood. Both Miss Thorley and I agree that it gives a really uncommon interest to the work, having a nice little definite world to work on, instead of the awful abyss and immensity of all British Plants. Charles Darwin in a letter to Joseph Hooker -director of Kew Gardens You will have realised from the quote above that the general theme of this blog is to study one area in detail rather than looking far and wide. In particular, to study the wild flowers that grow in the  ' nice little definite world ' of Leazes Park and where possible take a Darwinian perspective on matters. It is well known that in the early part of his career Darwin traveled far and wide on board HMS Beagle. Less well known, however, are his studies in his garden and its immediate surroundings and the influence those studies had on the formulation of his theory of evolution b...