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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 9 of 12

Flora Medica
  • A Botanical Account of All the More Important Plants Used in Medicine, in Different Parts of the World
  • John Lindley
  • Published online:
    05 May 2012
    Print publication:
    03 November 2011
    First published in:
    1838
  • John Lindley (1799–1865) was an English botanist and a leading authority on orchids. He attended Norwich Grammar School but was unable to afford university. Lindley's passion for botany helped him into the position of assistant in the herbarium of the naturalist and explorer Sir Joseph Banks. He soon established himself as a botanist of considerable talent, and was elected to the Linnean Society of London at the age of twenty-one. In 1822 he became assistant secretary to the Horticultural Society, and was elected Fellow of the Royal Society in 1828. He was Professor of Botany at University College, London, from 1829 to 1860. Published in 1838, Flora Medica is a systematic reference work written to help medical students understand the botanical characteristics and therapeutic properties of important medicinal plants from around the world. The book includes an appendix of indigenous names of Asiatic species, and a full index.

Icones Plantarum
  • Or, Figures, with Brief Descriptive Characters and Remarks of New or Rare Plants, Selected from the Author's Herbarium
  • Volume 4
  • William Jackson Hooker
  • Published online:
    05 May 2012
    Print publication:
    08 November 2011
    First published in:
    1841
  • 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 9
  • William Jackson Hooker
  • Published online:
    05 May 2012
    Print publication:
    08 November 2011
    First published in:
    1852
  • 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'.

Catalogue des plantes indigènes des Pyrénées et du Bas Languedoc
  • Avec des notes et observations sur les espèces nouvelles ou peu connues
  • George Bentham
  • Published online:
    05 May 2012
    Print publication:
    15 December 2011
    First published in:
    1826
  • English botanist George Bentham (1800–84) is most famous as the author of the popular Handbook of the British Flora (1858), which ran into many editions. A distinguished scientist, Bentham was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1862, and served as President of the Linnean Society of London for thirteen years (1861–74). Originally published in 1826, this catalogue of plants from the Pyrénées region of France is Bentham's second work. Inspired by French botanist de Candolle (1778–1841) as well as by the analytical methods of his uncle, the famous philosopher Jeremy Bentham, this book is a systematic overview of the plants found between Figueras, in the north of Spain, and Bordeaux, Narbonne and Montpellier in France. The book opens with the story of Bentham's 1825 three-month trip through the Pyrenees region, with botanist G. A. Walker Arnott (1799–1868), on which the Catalogue is based.

A General View of the Writings of Linnaeus
  • To Which is Annexed the Diary of Linnaeus, Written by Himself, and Now Translated into English, from the Swedish Manuscript in the Possession of the Editor
  • Richard Pulteney, Carl Linnaeus
  • Edited by William George Maton
  • Published online:
    05 May 2012
    Print publication:
    03 November 2011
    First published in:
    1782
  • Carl Linnaeus (1707–88), father of modern taxonomy, was one of the most important scientists of the eighteenth century. This biography was written by Richard Pulteney (1730–1801), a physician and botanist who greatly admired Linnaeus' methods and aimed to promote them in England. The first edition was published in 1781 and contains a thorough account of the major works of Linnaeus and his unpublished papers. As well as details of his academic career, the work also gives insights into Linnaeus' character and personal life. The second edition, reissued here, was edited by William George Maton (1774–1835), a physician and member of the Linnean Society, and published in 1805. It contains in addition a memoir of Pulteney and a translation of a Swedish life of Linnaeus based on his own notes. The book is a rich source of information on a central figure in the history of botany.

Flora Australiensis
  • A Description of the Plants of the Australian Territory
  • Volume 4, Stylidieae to Pedalineae
  • George Bentham, Ferdinand von Mueller
  • Published online:
    05 May 2012
    Print publication:
    08 December 2011
    First published in:
    1869
  • George Bentham (1800–84) was one of Britain's most influential botanists, whose own collection of plant specimens numbered more than 100,000. Although he donated his herbarium to the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew in 1854, he continued to make significant contributions to the field, including this exhaustive, seven-volume work detailing the plant life of Australia, which was published from 1863 to 1878. It was part of a series of works commissioned by the British government to document the flora in its colonies. Using the extensive numbers of specimens at Kew - and with the help of Ferdinand Mueller (1825–96), a German botanist in Australia - Bentham was able to compile descriptions of more than 8,000 species of Australian plants, making these volumes the first completed compendium of the flora of any large continental area. Volume 4, published in 1869, describes 26 orders of dicotyledon flora in the subclass monopetalae.

The Subtropical Garden
  • Or, Beauty of Form in the Flower Garden
  • William Robinson
  • Published online:
    05 May 2012
    Print publication:
    08 December 2011
    First published in:
    1871
  • The Irish-born gardener and writer William Robinson (1838–1935) travelled widely to study gardens and gardening in Europe and America. In 1871 he founded a weekly illustrated periodical, The Garden, which he owned until 1919, and he published numerous books on different aspects of horticulture. Topics included annuals, hardy perennials, alpines and subtropical plants, as well as accounts of his travels. High Victorian garden fashion involved formal beds of exotic and hothouse flowers. Robinson was influential in introducing less formal garden designs, using plants more suited to the English climate. This work was published in 1871, and showed how impressive outdoor displays could be achieved from hardier species, rather than relying on expensive greenhouses for short-lived plants. Robinson's most famous books, The Wild Garden (1870) and The English Flower Garden (1883) are also reissues in this series.

Catalogue of Plants Cultivated in the Garden of John Gerard, in the Years 1596–1599
  • Edited by Benjamin Daydon Jackson
  • Published online:
    05 May 2012
    Print publication:
    04 October 2011
    First published in:
    1876
  • For twenty years, the herbalist John Gerard (1545–1612) served as superintendent of the gardens of Elizabeth I's minister, Lord Burghley. The 1596 edition of Gerard's Catalogus is probably the first complete catalogue of any one garden, public or private, ever published. Describing his own garden, the list includes frankincense, saffron, an almond tree and even tulips, then exotic and notoriously costly. Probably intended originally only for the interest of Gerard's friends, and containing numerous errors, it progressed in 1599 into a new, improved edition for a much wider readership. In this book, first published privately in 1876, the botanist Benjamin Daydon Jackson (1846–1927) reproduces both editions, preserving the original errors and adding a memoir of the author that demonstrates the depth of his own research. With the modern names of the plants printed beside their earlier counterparts, Jackson's text is a fascinating resource for historical botanists and taxonomists.

Paxton's Flower Garden
  • Volume 2
  • Joseph Paxton, John Lindley
  • Published online:
    05 May 2012
    Print publication:
    08 December 2011
    First published in:
    1851
  • 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. Further colour plates of orchids are to be found in Volume 2, clearly a reflection of Lindley's interest, but also of the wider fascination for these flowers.

Wood and Garden
  • Notes and Thoughts, Practical and Critical, of a Working Amateur
  • Gertrude Jekyll
  • Published online:
    05 May 2012
    Print publication:
    15 December 2011
    First published in:
    1899
  • Gertrude Jekyll (1843–1932) was one of the most influential garden designers of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Skilled as a painter and in many forms of handicrafts, she found her metier in the combination of her artistic skills with considerable botanical knowledge. Having been collecting and breeding plants, including Mediterranean natives, since the 1860s, she began writing for William Robinson's magazine, The Garden, in 1881, and together they are regarded as transforming English horticultural method and design: Jekyll herself received over 400 design commissions in Britain, and her few surviving gardens are treasured today. Like Robinson's, her designs were informal and more natural in style than earlier Victorian fashions. In this, the first of fourteen books, published in 1899, she stresses the importance of being inspired by nature, and sums up her philosophy of gardening: 'planting ground is painting a landscape with living things'.

Icones Plantarum
  • Or, Figures, with Brief Descriptive Characters and Remarks of New or Rare Plants, Selected from the Author's Herbarium
  • Volume 7
  • William Jackson Hooker
  • Published online:
    05 May 2012
    Print publication:
    08 November 2011
    First published in:
    1844
  • 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'.

Memorials of Sir C .J. F. Bunbury, Bart
  • Volume 4, Middle Life Part 3
  • 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 4 covers the years 1857–64. Bunbury correctly foresaw in October 1859 that 'Darwin's forthcoming book on Species ... is likely to cause no little combustion in the scientific world'. He provides a valuable commentary on its reception over the following months.

Memorials of Sir C. J. F. Bunbury, Bart
  • Volume 5, Later Life Part 1
  • 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 5 covers the years 1865–8, and shows Bunbury's wide reading, from Latin poetry and military history to new books such as the latest edition of Lyell's Elements of Geology, as well as an interesting correspondence between Bunbury, Lyell, Hooker and Darwin about Agassiz's theories on glaciation.

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.

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.

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'.

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.

A Selection from the Physiological and Horticultural Papers Published in the Transactions of the Royal and Horticultural Societies
  • Thomas Andrew Knight
  • Published online:
    05 May 2012
    Print publication:
    24 November 2011
    First published in:
    1841
  • Thomas Andrew Knight (1759–1838) was a distinguished British naturalist and botanist who is often regarded as the father of nineteenth-century horticultural science. From 1811 to 1838 Knight was the president of the Royal Horticultural Society and his interest in structural biology, plant physiology and plant breeding is evident in this collection of papers, published in 1841. On his country estate in Herefordshire, Knight devoted his time to research and writing, and carried out experiments on plants and trees. He published papers on his theories about such physiological problems as the ascent and descent of sap and how buds are produced. The main focus, however, is on Knight's own practical work: building greenhouses and experimenting with plant nutrition, fertilisation and the improvement of fruit trees by selective breeding (work later appreciated by Darwin). In an interesting chapter on animals, Knight relates his observations on the behaviour of bees and dogs.

Flora Australiensis
  • A Description of the Plants of the Australian Territory
  • Volume 6, Thymeleae to Dioscorideae
  • George Bentham, Ferdinand von Mueller
  • Published online:
    05 May 2012
    Print publication:
    08 December 2011
    First published in:
    1873
  • George Bentham (1800–84) was one of Britain's most influential botanists, whose own collection of plant specimens numbered more than 100,000. Although he donated his herbarium to the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew in 1854, he continued to make significant contributions to the field, including this exhaustive, seven-volume work detailing the plant life of Australia, which was published from 1863 to 1878. It was part of a series of works commissioned by the British government to document the flora in its colonies. Using the extensive numbers of specimens at Kew - and with the help of Ferdinand Mueller (1825–96), a German botanist in Australia - Bentham was able to compile descriptions of more than 8,000 species of Australian plants, making these volumes the first completed compendium of the flora of any large continental area. Volume 6, published in 1873, describes 20 orders of flora in the classes dicotyledon and monocotyledon.

Page 9 of 12