Beautiful spring at the Jardin d’Acclimatation, Paris… “Acclimatation” or acclimatisation was a French-style notion of evolutionary adaptation, but it was also closely linked to ideas of polygenism and racism.

This is my second visit to the Jardin des Plantes in Paris. I was struck by how, on my first visit, I failed to notice the omnipresent influence of its founder, Comte de Buffon, whose design for the garden was largely inspired by an eclectic blend of theology and the “science” of natural history.