Gertrude Jekyll (1843 1932), the distinguished and influential garden designer of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, originally trained as an artist but later turned her hand to craftwork, gardening, and plant collecting and breeding. During her career she collaborated with distinguished architects such as Sir Edwin Lutyens and reached a popular audience through the publication of articles in newspapers and magazines such as William Robinson's The Garden. Jekyll's second book, first published in 1890, is a collection of her advice and reflections on a range of topics,...

Reginald J. Farrer (1880 1920) was a horticulturalist and plant finder who made a lasting contribution to British gardening, the rockery designs for which he is best known having been greatly influenced by those he discovered in Asia. First published in 1909, this study eloquently describes the author's own garden and its surrounding countryside in his home town of Clapham, Yorkshire. Focusing on the early spring, Farrer reveals through figurative prose the awakening of the flowers and shrubs, the character of the garden as winter disappears, and the aesthetics inherent to the natural world....

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),...

John Lindley (1799 1865) was an English horticulturalist who worked for Sir Joseph Banks and was later instrumental in saving the Royal Horticultural Society from financial disaster. His earlier books on British plants were well received and he was influential in the realm of botanical nomenclature, especially in orchidology. He was a prolific author and many of his books were aimed at a non-specialist readership. His aim in this work, published in 1840, was to provide 'the intelligent gardener, and the scientific amateur with the rationalia of the more important operations of horticulture'....

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...