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...

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),...