Manual of British Botany

Manual of British Botany: Containing the Flowering Plants and Ferns Arranged According to the Natural Orders

Series: Cambridge Library Collection – Life Sciences

First published in 1843, this book ran to eleven editions, with two published posthumously. Compiled by Cambridge botanist Charles Cardale Babington (1808–95) over the course of nine years, this was the first comprehensive catalogue of British plants for nearly a century and was conveniently pocket-sized for fieldwork. Babington was by this time the leader in the taxonomical research of higher plants. Providing both the Latin nomenclature assigned at the time and the common English or anglicised name, he divides plants according to the Linnaean natural orders and describes them in great technical detail. A useful glossary is also included to help the reader navigate the descriptions. As demonstrated in Memorials, Journal and Botanical Correspondence (also reissued in this series), Babington was a highly esteemed and influential scientist. This is the expanded 1904 ninth edition of his invaluable and enduring compendium.