Dr Matthew Jebb, Director of the National Botanic Gardens.

And here in Ireland, they would have been very much based on big private estates.

The big house would have had exotic collections, again, to show to their neighbours, their visitors, just how cutting edge and exciting their personal collections were during the that sort of pinnacle if you like of the the the british empire around the globe it seemed that the natural products of all of these countries whether it was rubber or chocolate or or just delightful blooms these tropical crops were flowing into Europe, and it would seem like there was no end to this pot of botanical wonders.

Domination, if you like, of the natural world was seen as a right to the the empire builders of their time.

And when these trees and plants first came to Europe, and we're thinking of things like, if we go back to the Tradescant, so the 16th century, 16th, 17th century, we're getting things like Virginia Creeper, tulip trees, taxodium, the bald cypress.

These were such unexpectedly different trees being brought in.

the the thrill of that total novelty it's something that no one had ever seen before it's as remote then as mars is today so that the thrill of that the scientific discovery and the fact that you could then possess one of these things personally and grow it in your own garden

For most, it became an insatiable desire to possess what everyone else wanted, at any price.