Cambridge Library Collection – Botany and Horticulture: Studies of Plant Life in Canada: Or, Gleanings from Forest, Lake and Plain

Catharine Parr Traill (1802-99) was a writer, botanist and settler who emigrated from England to Canada with her husband in 1832. Both she and her sister, Susanna Moodie, became well known for their writing on settler life: Traill is also the author of The Backwoods of Canada and The Canadian Settler’s Guide. This 1885 publication is the most comprehensive of her botanical works. Plants are grouped together by family and the book is divided into four sections: native flowers, flowering shrubs, forest trees and native ferns. Written to inspire the Canadian public to share her passion for the plant life of their country, the book has an engaging style where anecdotes and literary quotations appear alongside detailed descriptions and classification information. Traill’s niece, Agnes Chamberlin, is the book’s illustrator. A beautiful example of nineteenth-century popular botany, this book will appeal to anyone interested in the history of the subject.