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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 10 of 12

Historical and Biographical Sketches of the Progress of Botany in England
  • From its Origin to the Introduction of the Linnaean System
  • Volume 1
  • Richard Pulteney
  • Published online:
    05 May 2012
    Print publication:
    08 December 2011
    First published in:
    1790
  • Richard Pulteney (1730–1801) was a Leicestershire physician whose medical career suffered both from a lack of aristocratic patronage and from his dissenting religious background. However, his lifelong interest in botany and natural history, and particularly his work on the new Linnaean system of botanical classification, led to publications in the Gentleman's Magazine and the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1762. His book on Linnaeus (also reissued in this series), first published in 1782, was later considered to be of great significance for the acceptance in England of the Linnaean system, and this two-volume work, published in 1790, is still relevant to the study of the history of botany. Volume 1 begins in 'primaeval' and 'druidical' times and continues to the seventeenth century, including the first printed herbals and the work of the great botanist John Ray.

Icones Plantarum
  • Or, Figures, with Brief Descriptive Characters and Remarks of New or Rare Plants, Selected from the Author's Herbarium
  • Volume 2
  • 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'.

Icones Plantarum
  • Or, Figures, with Brief Descriptive Characters and Remarks of New or Rare Plants, Selected from the Author's Herbarium
  • Volume 5
  • William Jackson Hooker
  • Published online:
    05 May 2012
    Print publication:
    08 November 2011
    First published in:
    1842
  • 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 Fruit Manual
  • Containing the Descriptions and Synonymes of the Fruits and Fruit Trees Commonly Met with in the Gardens and Orchards of Great Britain, with Selected Lists of Those Most Worthy of Cultivation
  • Robert Hogg
  • Published online:
    05 May 2012
    Print publication:
    08 December 2011
    First published in:
    1860
  • Robert Hogg (1818–97) was a British nurseryman and an early secretary of the Royal Horticultural Society: a prize medal is named in his honour. Born in Berwickshire, Hogg trained in medicine at Edinburgh before following his father into fruit tree cultivation, and became joint editor of the Cottage Gardener, later the Journal of Horticulture. In 1851, he published The British Pomology (also reissued in this series): this work, on apples, was apparently intended as a study of British fruit trees, but no further volumes followed. Instead, in 1860, Hogg published this comprehensive catalogue of British fruit, which ran to five, increasingly extended, editions over the next twenty-five years. It became the standard reference work, and was even plagiarised in Scott's Orchardist: however Hogg sued and obtained an injunction preventing further sales. Hogg promoted systematic work in the Royal Horticultural Society and was instrumental in setting up its fruit committee.

Memoirs of the Botanic Garden at Chelsea
  • Belonging to the Society of Apothecaries of London
  • Henry Field
  • Edited by R. H. Semple
  • Published online:
    05 May 2012
    Print publication:
    15 December 2011
    First published in:
    1878
  • Henry Field (1755–1837) was a British apothecary and member of the Society of Apothecaries of London. Besides serving in various administrative capacities for the Society, as well as for the London Annuity Society (founded by his father), he was nominated in 1831 as one of the medical officers for the City of London board of health, charged with taking precautions against an outbreak of cholera in the city. A lecturer and regular contributor to medical journals, Field is also the author of this history of the Chelsea Physic Garden, first published in 1820. The present reissue, published in 1878, was revised and extended by Robert Hunter Semple (1815–91). The garden was originally created by the Society as a professional resource in 1673 and the book covers its development up to 1878, and also includes a ground plan of the garden in that year.

The Elements of Botany
  • Adrien de Jussieu
  • Translated by James Hewetson Wilson
  • Published online:
    05 May 2012
    Print publication:
    15 December 2011
    First published in:
    1849
  • The author of pioneering works on the plant families Euphorbiaceae and Malpighiaceae, French botanist Adrien de Jussieu (1797–1853), from a famous family of scientists, became professor of botany at the Paris Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle in 1826. The author of several specialised monographs, he is best known for his Botanique: Cours élémentaire d'histoire naturelle (1842), an exhaustive introduction to botany originally intended for use in French schools. This much acclaimed book went through twelve editions between 1842 and 1884, and was translated into many languages. This English translation, completed while he was still an Oxford student by the young British botanist James Hewetson Wilson (1826–50), was first published in 1849. It contains additional descriptions of the different systems and structures that clarify de Jussieu's terminology, as well as an appendix on geology.

The Rose Book
  • A Practical Treatise on the Culture of the Rose
  • Shirley Hibberd
  • Published online:
    05 May 2012
    Print publication:
    08 March 2012
    First published in:
    1864
  • James Shirley Hibberd (1825–90) was a journalist and writer on gardening, whose popular works had great influence on middle-class taste. Although not a trained horticulturalist, his many books were based on practical experience. He developed a succession of gardens in North London, concentrating on particular types of plants, and his books reflected this work, with this book of 1864 and The Fern Garden (1869) being particularly successful. He also wrote on garden design, flower arrangement, garden furniture and architecture, and his Rustic Adornments of 1856 (reissued in this series, together with The Fern Garden), is an interesting document of social history. He edited the magazine Floral World until 1875 and later The Gardener's Magazine, and was even consulted by the government about potato blight. His engaging and very personal style made him a popular forerunner of modern celebrity gardeners, and set a fashion for highly decorative and ornamental gardens.

Garden-Craft Old and New
  • John D. Sedding
  • Published online:
    05 May 2012
    Print publication:
    15 December 2011
    First published in:
    1891
  • John D. Sedding (1838–91) was an English church architect and an influential figure in the Arts and Crafts movement. Having worked in Penzance and Bristol, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects in 1874 and set up a practice in London, eventually becoming a neighbour of William Morris. His designs included new churches such as Holy Trinity in Sloane Street (1888–90), Holy Redeemer in Clerkenwell (1887–95), and All Saints, Falmouth (1887–90), as well as restoration projects and decorative work. In 1888 he moved to Kent, and developed his interests in gardening and garden design. This book, completed in 1890 and published posthumously in 1891, sets out Sedding's vision for the landscaped garden. It helped to revive garden features such as terraces, covered walkways and topiary, and inspired generations of garden designers, particularly in the Arts and Crafts movement.

Recollections of a Happy Life
  • Being the Autobiography of Marianne North
  • Volume 2
  • 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 2 covers North's travels to Australia and New Zealand, which she undertook at the suggestion of Charles Darwin. The work concludes with the last journey she made, to Chile in 1884–5, to paint the monkey-puzzle tree in its natural habitat. This autobiography reveals the stories behind North's art, which can still be appreciated today since her vivid paintings are displayed at Kew Gardens.

The Ferns (Filicales)
  • Treated Comparatively with a View to their Natural Classification
  • Volume 1, Analytical Examination of the Criteria of Comparison
  • F. O. Bower
  • Published online:
    05 April 2012
    Print publication:
    31 October 2010
    First published in:
    1923
  • Frederick Orpen Bower (1855–1948) was a renowned botanist best known for his research on the origins and evolution of ferns. Appointed Regius Professor of Botany at the University of Glasgow in 1885, he became a leading figure in the development of modern botany and the emerging field of paleobotany, devising the interpolation theory of the life cycle in land plants. First published between 1923 and 1928 as part of the Cambridge Botanical Handbook series, The Ferns was the first systematic classification of ferns according to anatomical, morphological and developmental features. In this three-volume work Bower analyses the major areas of comparison between different species, describes primitive and fossil ferns and compares these species to present-day fern species, providing a comprehensive description of the order. Volume 1 describes and analyses the features of ferns which Bower uses in his system of classification.

Monocotyledons
  • A Morphological Study
  • Agnes Arber
  • Published online:
    05 April 2012
    Print publication:
    31 October 2010
    First published in:
    1925
  • Agnes Arber (1879–1960) was a prominent British botanist specialising in plant morphology, who focused her research on the monocotyledon group of flowering plants. She was the first female botanist to be elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, in 1946. This volume, first published as part of the Cambridge Botanical Handbooks series in 1925, provides an anatomical and comparative study of the monocotyledon group of plants with an analysis of the methods and objects of studying plant morphology. At the time of publication, comparative anatomy and morphology were the centre of botanical investigation; however there were differences between British and continental biologists concerning the aims of morphological study. In the introduction to this volume Arber reconciled these views by describing a distinction between pure and applied morphology, interpreting the differences in monocotyledonous species in light of this. The book contains an extensive bibliography and 160 figures.

English Naturalists from Neckam to Ray
  • A Study of the Making of the Modern World
  • Charles E. Raven
  • Published online:
    05 April 2012
    Print publication:
    31 October 2010
    First published in:
    1947
  • C. E. Raven (1885–1964) was an academic theologian elected Regius Professor of Divinity at the University of Cambridge in 1932, who developed an interest in natural history and the history of scientific thought. First published in 1947, this volume demonstrates how changing attitudes to the natural world reflected and influenced the transformations in scientific thought between the medieval period and the eighteenth century. Raven's focus on the field of 'natural history' reveals how the scientific ideas behind modern biological studies developed from the richly illustrated and often fantastical bestiaries of the medieval world. The subjects of this volume are grouped chronologically into Pioneers, Explorers and Popularisers, with biographical details woven together with discussions of their academic work. The book provided a wealth of new information concerning the founders of natural history and remains a valuable contribution to this subject.

Makers of British Botany
  • A Collection of Biographies by Living Botanists
  • Edited by F. W. Oliver
  • Published online:
    05 April 2012
    Print publication:
    31 October 2010
    First published in:
    1913
  • First published in 1913, this volume reproduces a series of lectures on influential botanists delivered in 1911 in the Botanical Department of University College, London. The subjects of these biographies include Sir William Hooker (1785–1865), the first Director of Kew, and John Ray (1627–1705), considered the founder of scientific botany in Britain. The biographies are written by distinguished botanists of the period, over half of them holding a university professorship and membership of the Royal Society. Edited by F. W. Oliver (1864–1951), Professor of Botany at University College, London, from 1890 to 1929, these essays provide information on the lives, and discuss the scientific contributions, of each botanist, each contributor specialising in the same area of botany as the subject. The wide range of subjects covered demonstrates the development of key botanical concepts and the growth of scientific botany in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

A History of English Gardening, Chronological, Biographical, Literary, and Critical
  • Tracing the Progress of the Art in This Country from the Invasion of the Romans to the Present Time
  • George William Johnson
  • Published online:
    05 April 2012
    Print publication:
    03 October 2011
    First published in:
    1829
  • In this informative study of Britain's rich horticultural history, first published in 1829, George W. Johnson (1802–66), a chemist, political economist and practising gardener, traces the history of gardening in England. He argues that the pursuit is an art which, like other art forms, developed by way of experiments and chance discoveries. The basic facts we know today, such as that vines must be watered, that plants flourish on exposure to the sun, and that animal manure helps to cultivate vegetables, all came about as a result of findings being passed down through many generations, and practice being improved through experience. Tracing the cultural importance of gardening back to biblical times, and relating it to the works of classical writers such as Hesiod, Cato and Cicero, as well as modern scholars such as Linnaeus and Banks, Johnson's work remains of interest to horticulturalists and botanists today.

Fungi
  • Ascomycetes, Ustilaginales, Uredinales
  • Helen Gwynne-Vaughan
  • Published online:
    05 April 2012
    Print publication:
    31 October 2010
    First published in:
    1922
  • Dame Helen Gwynne-Vaughan (1879–1967) was a prominent British mycologist, specialising in the sexual process of fungi. In 1909 she was appointed Head of the Department of Botany at Birkbeck College, becoming Professor of Botany when Birkbeck College joined the University of London in 1920. This volume was first published in 1922 as part of the Cambridge Botanical Handbooks series. The introduction provides a detailed description of the structure, sexual reproduction, parasitism and symbiosis of all fungi, with subsequent chapters describing fully the morphology and reproduction of genera within the phylum ascomycetes and the orders ustilaginales and uredinales on which Gwynne-Vaughan based her research. Illustrations and a bibliography accompany each chapter. This volume provides an insight into the study of mycology in the early twentieth century, before technological advances in the field of cytology revolutionized the discipline.

Herbals: Their Origin and Evolution
  • A Chapter in the History of Botany, 1470–1670
  • Agnes Arber
  • Published online:
    05 April 2012
    Print publication:
    31 October 2010
    First published in:
    1938
  • Agnes Arber (1879–1960) was a prominent British botanist specialising in plant morphology and the history of botany. In 1946 she became the first female botanist to be elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. First published in 1912 and issued in an expanded second edition in 1938, this volume traces the history and development of printed herbals between 1470 and 1670. This two-hundred-year period was the most prolific for the publication of herbals, and significantly saw the emergence of botany as a scientific discipline within the study of natural history. Although Arber mentions the medical aspects of the herbal, her analysis remains focused on investigating herbals from a botanical view, with chapters devoted to the evolution of plant descriptions, classifications and illustrations. Her book remains the standard work on this subject. The text of this volume is taken from a 1953 reissue of the 1938 second edition.

Algae
  • Volume 1, Myxophyceae, Peridinieae, Bacillarieae, Chlorphyceae
  • G. S. West
  • Published online:
    05 April 2012
    Print publication:
    31 October 2010
    First published in:
    1916
  • George Stephen West (1876–1919) was a prominent British botanist specialising in freshwater algae. In 1906 he became a lecturer in botany at the University of Birmingham and was later appointed the Mason Professor of Botany. This volume was first published in 1916 as the first of the Cambridge Botanical Handbooks series and provides a description of both marine and freshwater algae in the Myxophyceae, Peridinieae, Bacillarieae and Chlorophyceae classes. West describes the habitat, biological conditions, distribution, internal and external structures and life history of these algae in great detail, with a bibliography concluding each chapter. The book provided the first detailed description of the Myxophyceae (or blue-green) class of algae, and provides an insight into knowledge and classification of algae at the time of publication. A second volume containing a full taxonomic account of freshwater algae was planned, but not published owing to the author's death in 1919.

Water Plants
  • A Study of Aquatic Angiosperms
  • Agnes Arber
  • Published online:
    05 April 2012
    Print publication:
    31 October 2010
    First published in:
    1920
  • Agnes Arber (1879–1960) was a prominent British botanist specialising in plant morphology and comparative anatomy. In 1946, she became the first female botanist to be elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. First published in 1920, this volume provides a detailed anatomical study of aquatic flowering plants, with a discussion of their evolutionary history. Arber describes the general anatomical and reproductive organs, life histories and physiological adaptations of aquatic plants in detail, with interpretations informed from her previous experimental work. The final section of this volume discusses the evolutionary history of aquatic plants in the light of affinities to terrestrial flowering plants. Arber's account of aquatic plants was the first general description of these plants published, and provides a classic example of the comparative anatomy studies which were central to botanical investigation during the early twentieth century. An extensive bibliography and over 170 illustrations are included in this volume.

The Ferns (Filicales)
  • Treated Comparatively with a View to their Natural Classification
  • Volume 3, The Leptosporangiate Ferns
  • F. O. Bower
  • Published online:
    05 April 2012
    Print publication:
    31 October 2010
    First published in:
    1928
  • Frederick Orpen Bower (1855–1948) was a renowned botanist best known for his research on the origins and evolution of ferns. Appointed Regius Professor of Botany at the University of Glasgow in 1885, he became a leading figure in the development of modern botany and the emerging field of paleobotany, devising the interpolation theory of the life cycle in land plants. First published between 1923 and 1928 as part of the Cambridge Botanical Handbook series, The Ferns was the first systematic classification of ferns according to anatomical, morphological and developmental features. In this three-volume work Bower analyses the major areas of comparison between different species, describes primitive and fossil ferns and compares these species to present-day fern species, providing a comprehensive description of the order. Volume 3 describes, analyses and classifies extant species of ferns.

Journal Kept by David Douglas during his Travels in North America 1823–1827
  • Together with a Particular Description of Thirty-Three Species of American Oaks and Eighteen Species of Pinus
  • David Douglas
  • Published online:
    05 April 2012
    Print publication:
    29 September 2011
    First published in:
    1914
  • David Douglas (1799–1834), the influential Scottish botanist and plant collector, trained as a gardener before attending Perth College and Glasgow University. His genius for botany flourished and his talents came to the attention of the Royal Horticultural Society. With the society's backing he went to North America in 1823, beginning his life-long fascination with the region's flora. He discovered thousands of new species and introduced 240 of them to Britain, including the Douglas fir. Douglas continued to explore and discover plant species until his death in the Sandwich Islands (present-day Hawaii) in 1834. This remarkable journal, which remained unpublished until 1914, describes his adventures in North America during 1823–7. It also includes extracts from his journal of his explorations of Hawaii during 1833–4. The appendices include a listing of the plants Douglas introduced to Britain, and contemporary accounts of investigations into the mysterious circumstances of his death.

Page 10 of 12