Book review: Darwin's Garden

DARWIN'S GARDEN MICHAEL BOULTER(Constable, £16.99)

TO UNDERSTAND how Darwin's theory evolved, we have to look beyond Galapagos, Tahiti or Tierra del Fuego to Down House, in the exotic climes of Kent. Here it was that, the voyage of the Beagle over, the naturalist settled down with his young family: the house was ugly, but the garden was big and full of possibility.

Over more than 20 years, he made the place his own. The garden grew with ideas: a "living laboratory" in which he could investigate his hunches and try out his ideas. How did a new strain of gooseberries grow out of an old? How do you prevent the pollination of a primrose?

All the time, Boulter shows in an enthralling study, the great naturalist was worrying away at difficulties which have exercised evolutionary scientists to this day.