The Secrets of Darwin's Greenhouse

Despite the controversy, evolution was widely accepted by many naturalists within a few years of the Origin’s appearance. An important reason for this rapid triumph was Darwin’s botanical works. Seen through evolutionary eyes, plants proved to be mobile, carnivorous, sensitive – even crafty.

As Darwin “exalted” his favourite flowers, the orchids, he also narrowed the once-unimaginably wide gap between plants and animals, thus making it easier for his readers to imaginatively bridge the much smaller distance between humans and apes.

A lecture by Jim Endersby

The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:

[Raydensheraj]

Reading James T.Costa's " Darwin's Backyard "...this lecture just comes at the perfect time. Thanks. Darwin's Botanical work is ( my opinion ) his most interesting because so underrated when compared with Origins/Descent.

[Sue-rhqj]

Beautifully articulated and amusingly narrated, thank you.

[aidenbusselman]

I got contact giddy when he got giddy talking about Darwin being giddy. Loved this lecture and showed how little I actually know about the man

[christopherkirkland]

Fascinating. I wasn't familiar with Darwin's follow-up work before.

[jennyvowles]

Gosh, I'd never seen John Wyndham's Triffids as the apotheosis of Darwinism before! Via H G Wells of course!

[johannjohann]

the animal humans are most like are not monkeys or apes, but our feline friends: cats. We share 100% of the same muscles in domesticated cats, where we only share 40% with apes or monkeys. This also means items like arteries, veins, nerves, tendons, and even the heart are also quite similar. However, our digestive tract is most like a pig. Darwin didn't study animal physiology and made his theories from only external observations. duh.