darwin and the art of botany: observations on the curious world of plants

＂Darwin and the Art of Science will consist of excerpts from six of Darwin’s books, chosen and introduced by James Costa. The excerpts will be arranged by plant (rather than according to which book they’re from) in order to make the most of extraordinary images provided by the Oak Springs Garden Foundation library. As a group, they will provide unparalleled access to Darwin’s fascinating observations and musings about the world of plants and how their distinctive features have evolved＂--

Bobbi Angell is a scientific illustrator, printmaker, instructor, and gardener. Drawing neotropical plants for botanists at New York Botanical Garden and other institutions led to her interest in Charles Darwin, recognizing species he might have seen in Brazil and elsewhere. Bobbi is coauthor of A Botanist’s Vocabulary and her pen-and-ink illustrations have been published in floras including Vascular Plants of Central French Guiana, Vines and Climbing Plants of Puerto Rico, and Intermountain Flora. Bobbi lives in southern Vermont where she searches for, draws, and grows native and unusual plants. Visit her website at bobbiangell.com.

Jim Costa is an evolutionary biologist, entomologist, and historian of science. He is executive director of the Highlands Biological Station in Highlands, North Carolina, and Professor of Evolutionary Biology at Western Carolina University in Cullowhee, North Carolina. A long-time Research Associate in entomology at Harvard’s Museum of Comparative Zoology, he’s the author of numerous scientific research papers and several books about Darwin and Alfred Wallace Russel. He teaches biogeography and the history of evolutionary biology and lectures widely in the United States and Europe. Visit his website at jamestcosta.com.