Loudon's encyclopædia of plants : comprising the specific character, description, culture, history, application in the arts, and every other desirable particular respecting all the plants indigenous to, cultivated in, or introduced to Britain / [J.C. Loudon].

  • John Claudius Loudon
Date:
1855
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Loudon's encyclopædia of plants : comprising the specific character, description, culture, history, application in the arts, and every other desirable particular respecting all the plants indigenous to, cultivated in, or introduced to Britain / [J.C. Loudon]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    7/1618 (page 3)
    PREFACE. In this Encyclopaedia are included all the indigenous, cultivated, and exotic plants which are now found in, or have been introduced into, Britain. The object of the work is to give a natural history of these plants, accompanied by such descriptions, engraved figures, and elementary details, as shall enable a beginner, who is a mere English reader, to discover the name of any plant which he may find in flower, refer it to its proper place, both in the Natural and Artificial Systems of Classification, and acquire all the information respecting it which is useful or interesting. It must be evident to all who are conversant with the present state of botany, and who know the number of plants which have been introduced into Britain, that to accomplish such an object within the limits of a volume is a task of no ordinary difficulty ; some explanation of the manner in which it has been executed may therefore be required. The Work is divided into Two Parts. The First Part (p. [1.]) contains the Linnean or Artificial Arrangement of all the genera and species, with all the details comprehended in botanical description and natural and artificial botanical history, and with engraved portraits of one or more species of each genus. The Second Part (p. 1051.) contains the Jussieuean or Natural Arrangement of all the genera, without repetition of the species or any details connected with them : but as the names of the natural orders are added after each genus in the Artificial System, aud as each genus in both arrangements is numbered, a direct reference may be had from the second arrangement to the first, and from the first to the second; reference may also be had indirectly, through the medium of the Contents and Index. An Introduction is given to each system of arrangement (p. [l.]& 1051.), and a General Introduction to the whole work (p. xix.), in which its uses are explained. When the beginner has a plant in flower and would ascertain its name, he will turn to the Linnean System, as explained in the Introduction to that system (p. [1.]); and, when he has but a small part of any plant, he will turn to the Natural System, as directed in the General Introduction (p. xix.). All the Technical Terms, or words not usually found in an English dictionary, are explained in the Glossary (p. 1094.) ; and engravings are given of such of the objects designated as might occasion any difficulty to a beginner. This Glossary and the two Introductions (p. [1.] & 1051.) form together a complete Grammar of Botany. The Table of Synonymes in various languages (p. ] 108.) may, to a certain extent, be considered as presenting the Popular Floras of the various countries where these names are used; since it is only to the remarkable plants of a country that vernacular names are given. The signs used for the habits of plants (column 3.), and their duration in the garden (col. 4.), are improvements in botanical description by the Editor*, now applied for the first time. The twenty-three varieties of habit are indicated by figures of the plants themselves ; as a grass for a grass, a bulb for a bulb, a plant floating on water for an aquatic, &c, &c, to recollect which requires no exertion of memory. A perennial is indicated by a triangle, instead of the old si<m, if:; an annual remains a circle as before, O, because, among other reasons, gardeners sow patches of annual flowers in circles ; and a biennial is a double circle, Q>, instead of the old sign, <?. The bark stove is a square, □ ; the dry stove three sides of a square, ZD ; the green-house two and a half sides of a square, i_J ; and the frame two sides of a square, I; because these forms, if supposed to indicate the sections of plant-houses enclosed by glazed sashes, as actually built, will represent the different structures which are meant to be indicated. By combining the signs of duration with habitation, E3 S3 ES] OJ, &c. &c, much room is saved in abridged botanical description. Thus, in consequence of the single innovation of the triangle and the * Originally exhibited in the Encyclopedia of Gardening, 2d edit. 1824, p. 126.