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Until the nineteenth century, the investigation of natural phenomena, plants and animals was considered either the preserve of elite scholars or a pastime for the leisured upper classes. As increasing academic rigour and systematisation was brought to the study of 'natural history', its subdisciplines were adopted into university curricula, and learned societies (such as the Royal Horticultural Society, founded in 1804) were established to support research in these areas. A related development was strong enthusiasm for exotic garden plants, which resulted in plant collecting expeditions to every corner of the globe, sometimes with tragic consequences. This series includes accounts of some of those expeditions, detailed reference works on the flora of different regions, and practical advice for amateur and professional gardeners.

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222 results in Cambridge Library Collection - Botany and Horticulture

Page 7 of 12

Instructions in Gardening for Ladies
  • Jane Loudon
  • Published online:
    05 March 2014
    Print publication:
    14 February 2013
    First published in:
    1840
  • Jane Loudon (1807–58), the Mrs Beeton of the Victorian gardening world, wrote several popular books on horticulture and botany, specifically for women. She is also remembered as the author of The Mummy! - an early work of science fiction - and as editor of The Ladies' Companion. Her knowledge of plants and gardening was gained from her husband, the landscape designer John Claudius Loudon, whom she married in 1830, and from attending the lectures of the botanist John Lindley. Her notes from these were published as articles in John Loudon's Gardener's Magazine. This book, first published in 1840, was an immediate success, selling 1,350 copies on the day of publication and more than 200,000 in total. Written in the approachable style typical of her works, it covers all the elements of horticulture, and helped to encourage many Victorian women to take up gardening as a hobby.

Flora of Suffolk
  • A Catalogue of the Plants (Indigenous or Naturalized) Found in a Wild State in the County of Suffolk
  • John Stevens Henslow, Edmund Skepper
  • Published online:
    05 March 2014
    Print publication:
    21 March 2013
    First published in:
    1860
  • An influential professor of botany at Cambridge, John Stevens Henslow (1796–1861) revived his department and helped develop the current University Botanical Garden for study, teaching and conservation. A mentor to the young Darwin, he proved an educational innovator, initiating the study of individual sciences at Cambridge and practical examinations at the University of London. While rector of Hitcham in Suffolk, he took an interest in local politics, welfare and popular education. This led to the publication in 1860 of this catalogue, which collated the observations and work of amateur botanists. Henslow was the overarching academic and technical consultant while Edmund Skepper is credited with organising and collating the information from the contributors. Catalogued taxonomically, each plant's Latin and common name is given along with its physical description, common locations, rarity or commonality, and periods of flowering or germination. It remains a valuable guide for amateur botanists and naturalists.

Manual of British Botany
  • Containing the Flowering Plants and Ferns Arranged According to the Natural Orders
  • Charles Cardale Babington
  • Edited by Henry Grove, James Grove
  • Published online:
    05 March 2014
    Print publication:
    21 February 2013
    First published in:
    1843
  • First published in 1843, this book ran to eleven editions, with two published posthumously. Compiled by Cambridge botanist Charles Cardale Babington (1808–95) over the course of nine years, this was the first comprehensive catalogue of British plants for nearly a century and was conveniently pocket-sized for fieldwork. Babington was by this time the leader in the taxonomical research of higher plants. Providing both the Latin nomenclature assigned at the time and the common English or anglicised name, he divides plants according to the Linnaean natural orders and describes them in great technical detail. A useful glossary is also included to help the reader navigate the descriptions. As demonstrated in Memorials, Journal and Botanical Correspondence (also reissued in this series), Babington was a highly esteemed and influential scientist. This is the expanded 1904 ninth edition of his invaluable and enduring compendium.

First Book of Indian Botany
  • Daniel Oliver
  • Published online:
    05 March 2014
    Print publication:
    21 February 2013
    First published in:
    1869
  • Well known among his contemporaries for his unrivalled knowledge of aberrant plants, Daniel Oliver (1830–1916) ran the herbarium at Kew Gardens and held the chair of botany at University College London, for which he was recommended by Charles Darwin. Although Oliver never visited India, his expertise in Indian botany grew considerably after he worked with an enormous number of dried specimens rescued from the cellars of the East India Company. In this book, first published in 1869, he sets out the basics of botanical study in India for the absolute beginner. It includes instruction on the anatomy of simple plants, lessons in collection and dissection, and explanations of botany's often dense terminology. Annotated diagrams appear throughout, in both microscopic and macroscopic views. Rigorous and carefully structured, Oliver's book remains an excellent resource for novice botanists and students in the history of science.

A Catalogue of British Plants Arranged According to the Natural System
  • With the Synonyms of De Candolle, Smith, and Lindley
  • John Stevens Henslow
  • Published online:
    05 March 2014
    Print publication:
    26 September 2013
    First published in:
    1829
  • In 1829, botany had much to prove. A prominent lecturer, John Lindley, noted that 'it has been very much the fashion of late years, in this country, to undervalue the importance of this science, and to consider it an amusement for ladies rather than an occupation for the serious thoughts of man'. In the three documents reissued here, Cambridge botany professor John Stevens Henslow (1796–1861) demonstrates the exacting standards of his course. The work contains an 1829 catalogue of British plants, the skeleton structure of sixteen lectures for 1833 and an 1851 list of potential examination questions. Students were expected to differentiate between 'an indefinite and a definite inflorescence', to recognise 'albuminous seeds', and describe 'nectariferous appendages'. With a strongly Linnaean approach to taxonomy, this collection offers researchers a window into the growth of academic botany prior to the revolution occasioned by Stevens' pupil, Charles Darwin.

Diary of a Scotch Gardener at the French Court at the End of the Eighteenth Century
  • Thomas Blaikie
  • Edited by Francis Birrell
  • Published online:
    05 March 2014
    Print publication:
    11 October 2012
    First published in:
    1931
  • Scottish gardener and botanist Thomas Blaikie (1751–1838) spent the majority of his life in France, where he designed and planted some of the most famous Parisian gardens: he drew up the original plans for the gardens of the Château de Bagatelle and renovated the Parc Monceau. He became a favourite of Marie Antoinette, and served patrons among the highest ranks of the aristocracy in pre-revolutionary France, including the Comte d'Artois and the Duc d'Orléans. After surviving the French Revolution, he received a commission to create gardens for Empress Joséphine at her Malmaison country retreat. Blaikie kept this fascinating diary from 1775 until August 1792. More than just an account of his vast gardening knowledge and achievements, the book gives a unique insight into the social history of the revolutionary period in France. It was edited by the critic and journalist Francis Birrell (1889–1935) and first published in 1931.

The Fauna and Flora of Palestine
  • Henry Baker Tristram
  • Published online:
    05 July 2013
    Print publication:
    06 May 2013
    First published in:
    1884
  • The Survey of Western Palestine was carried out under the auspices of the Palestine Exploration Fund between 1871 and 1877, and its results were published in a series of books between 1882 and 1888. This volume was written by H. B. Tristram (1822–1906), the naturalist, geologist and Anglican priest, whose The Land of Israel is also reissued in this series. Although he declined a bishopric in Jerusalem, he made four separate trips to Palestine in order to compile this catalogue of its flora and fauna. Including all native vertebrates, molluscs and plants known at the time, the work was first published in 1884 and laid the foundation for zoological study in Palestine. The catalogue offers a fascinating insight into the theories of late Victorian taxonomy as well the species it classifies here. Also included are detailed drawings and a scholarly preface summarising and tabulating Tristram's research.

The Book of Garden Management
  • Anonymous
  • Published online:
    05 June 2013
    Print publication:
    17 May 2012
    First published in:
    1871
  • This anonymous work (the name of H. P. D., the author of the preface, is not known) was probably compiled by Samuel Orchart Beeton (1831–77), the publishing entrepreneur who made his wife's Book of Household Management one of the best-selling titles of the century. Published in 1871, it is a complete guide to gardening for the enthusiastic middle-class amateur, with instructions on everything from choosing the site to garden design, plants and cultivation, 'fountains, fish-ponds, and ornamental waters' to the use of colour, interspersed with a detailed calendar of tasks to be carried out each month. It is illustrated with line engravings and twelve plates (which can be viewed in colour online at http:www.cambridge.org/9781108049399), providing both practical information and a fascinating insight into the plants available to the Victorian gardener, the techniques for cultivating flowers, fruit and vegetables, and the then current trends in design and display.

Paxton's Flower Garden
  • Volume 3
  • Joseph Paxton, John Lindley
  • Published online:
    05 March 2013
    Print publication:
    08 December 2011
    First published in:
    1852
  • Best remembered today for his innovative design for the Crystal Palace of 1851, Joseph Paxton (1803–65) was head gardener to the Duke of Devonshire at Chatsworth by the age of twenty-three, and remained involved in gardening throughout his life. Tapping in to the burgeoning interest in gardening amongst the Victorians, in 1841 he founded the periodical The Gardener's Chronicle with the botanist John Lindley (1799–1865), with whom he had worked on a Government report on Kew Gardens. Paxton's Flower Garden appeared between 1850 and 1853, following a series of plant-collecting expeditions. Only three of the planned ten volumes were published, but with hand-coloured plates (which can be viewed online alongside this reissue) and over 500 woodcuts, the work is lavish. Volume 3 includes further studies of numerous orchids, and Captain Cook's account of the discovery of the pine that would take his name, Araucaria cookii (Captain Cook's Pine).

Icones Plantarum
  • Or, Figures, with Brief Descriptive Characters and Remarks of New or Rare Plants, Selected from the Author's Herbarium
  • Volume 10
  • William Jackson Hooker
  • Published online:
    05 June 2012
    Print publication:
    08 November 2011
    First published in:
    1854
  • This world-famous work was begun by Sir William Jackson Hooker (1785–1865) in 1837, and the ten volumes reissued here were produced under his authorship until 1854, at which point his son, Joseph Dalton Hooker (1817–1911) continued the work of publication. Hooker's own herbarium, or collection of preserved plant specimens, was so extensive that at one point he stored it in one house and lived in another; it was left to the nation on his death. Each volume contains 100 line drawings of plants, and each is accompanied by a full Latin description, with notes in English on habitat and significant features. The order of the plants in each volume is not systematic, but two 'indexes' at the beginning provide plant lists, in alphabetical order and 'arranged according to the natural orders'.

Paxton's Flower Garden
  • Volume 1
  • Joseph Paxton, John Lindley
  • Published online:
    05 June 2012
    Print publication:
    08 December 2011
    First published in:
    1850
  • Best remembered today for his technically innovative design for the Crystal Palace of 1851, Joseph Paxton (1803–65) was head gardener to the Duke of Devonshire at Chatsworth by the age of twenty-three, and remained involved in gardening throughout his life. Tapping in to the burgeoning interest in gardening amongst the Victorians, in 1841 he founded the periodical The Gardener's Chronicle with the botanist John Lindley (1799–1865), with whom he had worked on a Government report on Kew Gardens. Paxton's Flower Garden appeared between 1850 and 1853, following a series of plant-collecting expeditions. Only three of the planned ten volumes were published, but with hand-coloured plates (which can be viewed online alongside this reissue) and over 500 woodcuts, the work is lavish. Volume 1 includes colour plates of orchids, Lindley's speciality, along with a pitcher plant and Moutan peony, both still unusual and exotic at the time of publication.

Icones Plantarum
  • Or, Figures, with Brief Descriptive Characters and Remarks of New or Rare Plants, Selected from the Author's Herbarium
  • Volume 8
  • William Jackson Hooker
  • Published online:
    05 June 2012
    Print publication:
    08 November 2011
    First published in:
    1848
  • This world-famous work was begun by Sir William Jackson Hooker (1785–1865) in 1837, and the ten volumes reissued here were produced under his authorship until 1854, at which point his son, Joseph Dalton Hooker (1817–1911) continued the work of publication. Hooker's own herbarium, or collection of preserved plant specimens, was so extensive that at one point he stored it in one house and lived in another; it was left to the nation on his death. Each volume contains 100 line drawings of plants, and each is accompanied by a full Latin description, with notes in English on habitat and significant features. The order of the plants in each volume is not systematic, but two 'indexes' at the beginning provide plant lists, in alphabetical order and 'arranged according to the natural orders'.

A Biographical Sketch of the Late William George Maton M.D.
  • Read at an Evening Meeting of the College of Physicians
  • John Ayrton Paris, William George Maton
  • Published online:
    05 June 2012
    Print publication:
    03 November 2011
    First published in:
    1838
  • English physician William George Maton (1774–1835) was a polymath who had a special interest in botany: a shell and a parrot were among species named in his honour. His writings on natural history included a catalogue of the plant and animal life around Salisbury, Wiltshire, which was published posthumously in 1843 and is reissued as the second part of this composite work. The first part contains a sketch of Maton's life and work by fellow physician and writer John Ayrton Paris (c. 1785–1856), first presented to the Royal College of Physicians, and subsequently published in 1838. Paris discusses Maton's early life, his contributions to the growing field of botany, his other scientific and antiquarian interests, and his distinguished medical career, during which he was appointed physician-extraordinary to Queen Charlotte, wife of George III, and later physician-in-ordinary to the duchess of Kent and the young Princess (later Queen) Victoria.

Recollections of a Happy Life
  • Being the Autobiography of Marianne North
  • Volume 1
  • Marianne North
  • Edited by Janet Symonds
  • Published online:
    05 May 2012
    Print publication:
    29 December 2011
    First published in:
    1892
  • Marianne North (1830–90), the Victorian amateur botanist and painter, travelled to distant countries of the world to paint exotic flora in their natural surroundings. This two-volume collection of her memoirs, edited by her sister and published in 1892, records North's remarkable travels. Laden with her palettes and easels, the independent North travelled alone and fended for herself. Her journals describe how she endured swarms of insects, scaled cliffs, trudged through wilderness and crossed swamps in order to reach the plants she wanted to paint. Volume 1 covers North's early upbringing and the origins of her enthusiasm for nature, and traces her travels through Canada and the United States, Jamaica, Brazil, Japan, Borneo, India and Sri Lanka. This fascinating autobiography reveals the stories behind North's art, which can still be appreciated today since she bequeathed her vivid paintings to Kew Gardens, where they are on display.

Linnaeus
  • Edited and translated by Benjamin Daydon Jackson
  • Theodor Magnus Fries
  • Published online:
    05 May 2012
    Print publication:
    22 December 2011
    First published in:
    1923
  • This biography of Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus (1707–78) was originally published in 1903 by another Swedish botanist, Theodor Magnus Fries (1832–1913). This English version, published in 1923, was translated and edited by British botanist Benjamin Daydon Jackson (1846–1927). Jackson is best known for founding (with J. D. Hooker) the Index Kewensis, the register of all botanical names of seed plants; he also acted as Secretary of the Linnean Society for twenty-two years, becoming its General Secretary in 1902. This biography covers the early life of Linnaeus (including some family history), his student years at Uppsala, his travels, his years as a teacher, notes on his personality and his relationship with the wider scientific community. Jackson provides further information in the appendices, enhancing Fries' work with Linnaeus' genealogy, a list of his pupils, his private notes on 'Divine Punishment' and a brief history of Sweden during Linnaeus' lifetime.

Memorials of Sir C. J. F. Bunbury, Bart
  • Volume 3, Middle Life Part 2
  • Charles James Fox Bunbury
  • Edited by Frances Horner Bunbury, Katharine Horner Lyell
  • Published online:
    05 May 2012
    Print publication:
    29 December 2011
    First published in:
    1891
  • Sir Charles James Fox Bunbury (1809–86), the distinguished botanist and geologist, corresponded regularly with Lyell, Horner, Darwin and Hooker among others, and helped them in identifying botanical fossils. He was active in the scientific societies of his time, becoming a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1851. This nine-volume edition of his letters and diaries was published privately by his wife Frances Horner and her sister Katherine Lyell between 1890 and 1893. His copious journal and letters give an unparalleled view of the scientific and cultural society of Victorian England, and of the impact of Darwin's theories on his contemporaries. Volume 3 covers the years from 1848 to 1856. In 1848 Bunbury published a well-received account of South Africa, and particularly its natural history: he had accompanied Sir George Napier, his step-mother's father, then governor general. Another notable event was a meeting in Berlin with Alexander von Humboldt.

The Natural Philosophy of Plant Form
  • Agnes Arber
  • Published online:
    05 May 2012
    Print publication:
    23 February 2012
    First published in:
    1950
  • When she was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1946, Agnes Arber (1879–1960) was one of only three women to have been admitted into the institution. Arber conducted research that focused mainly on the morphology of flowering plants, but her work is characterised by its explorations of historical botany and evolution. First published in 1950, this book widens the scope of morphology into a study of all aspects of form across the whole chronology of botany. Arber begins with Aristotle and investigates the work of early modern botanists like Bacon and Goethe, before examining the effects of this wider approach on subjects like evolution and taxonomy. Arguing that post-Darwinian doctrine often causes botanists to twist their observations to suit a hypothetical history of phylogenesis, rather than changing the hypothesis to suit observational facts, this bold and fascinating text will interest students of biology and philosophy alike.

Hortus Veitchii
  • A History of the Rise and Progress of the Nurseries of Messrs James Veitch and Sons
  • James Herbert Veitch
  • Published online:
    05 May 2012
    Print publication:
    09 October 2011
    First published in:
    1906
  • The Veitch dynasty, originally from Scotland, owned plant nurseries in Devon and London throughout the nineteenth century. By commissioning several expeditions to search for new and exotic flora for British gardens, they were instrumental in bringing many previously unknown plants into cultivation in Britain. James Herbert Veitch (1868–1907), who became managing director of the firm, spent time in Germany and France studying the techniques of horticulture, and later travelled the world himself collecting plants for the nursery in Chelsea. This work, published in 1906, gives a detailed account of the family business and of the men that the firm sent to South America, Japan, China and India during the period 1840–1906, including distinguished plant finders such as William Lobb, his brother Thomas, who first introduced various types of orchids from India to Britain for cultivation, and Richard Pearce, who brought back tuberous begonias from South America.

Icones Plantarum
  • Or, Figures, with Brief Descriptive Characters and Remarks of New or Rare Plants, Selected from the Author's Herbarium
  • Volume 1
  • William Jackson Hooker
  • Published online:
    05 May 2012
    Print publication:
    08 November 2011
    First published in:
    1837
  • This world-famous work was begun by Sir William Jackson Hooker (1785–1865) in 1837, and the ten volumes reissued here were produced under his authorship until 1854, at which point his son, Joseph Dalton Hooker (1817–1911) continued the work of publication. Hooker's own herbarium, or collection of preserved plant specimens, was so extensive that at one point he stored it in one house and lived in another; it was left to the nation on his death. Each volume contains 100 line drawings of plants, and each is accompanied by a full Latin description, with notes in English on habitat and significant features. The order of the plants in each volume is not systematic, but two 'indexes' at the beginning provide plant lists, in alphabetical order and 'arranged according to the natural orders'.

The Origin of Cultivated Plants
  • Alphonse de Candolle
  • Published online:
    05 May 2012
    Print publication:
    03 November 2011
    First published in:
    1886
  • Alphonse de Candolle (1806–93) was a French-Swiss botanist who was an important figure in the study of the origins of plants and the reasons for their geographic distribution. He also created the first Code of Botanical Nomenclature. Despite initially studying law, he took over both the chair of botany at the University of Geneva, and the directorship of Geneva's botanical gardens from his father Augustin de Candolle (1778–1841). He published numerous botanical books, and edited ten volumes of the Prodromus, a seventeen-volume reference text intended to cover the key properties of all known seed plants. This work, reissued in the second edition of the English translation of 1886, is his most famous and influential book, tracing the geographic origins of plants known to have been cultivated by humans. It is one of the earliest studies of the history of crop domestication, and an important contribution to phytogeography.

Page 7 of 12