1. Botanische Grammatik : zur Erläuterung sowohl der künstlichen, als der natürlichen Classification : nebst einer Darstellung des Juessieu'schen Systems / von Sir James Edward Smith ; aus dem Englishchen übersetzt.
   By: Smith, James Edward,
   Publication info: Wien :F. Stöckholzer v. Hirschfeld,1824.
   Contributed by: Mertz Library, The New York Botanical Garden
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2. A compendium of the English flora.
   By: Smith, James Edward, - Hooker, William Jackson,
   Edition: 2d ed., with additions and corr. by W.J. Hooker.
   Publication info: London,Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, Green & Longman,1836.
   Contributed by: Mertz Library, The New York Botanical Garden
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3. The English flora.
   By: Smith, James Edward, - Berkeley, M. J. - Hooker, William Jackson,
   Publication info: London,Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, Brown, and Green,1824-36.
   Contributed by: Mertz Library, The New York Botanical Garden
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4. The English flora.
   By: Smith, James Edward,
   Edition: 2d ed.
   Publication info: London,Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown and Green,[1828-30]
   Contributed by: Mertz Library, The New York Botanical Garden
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5. The English flora. Vol. I /
   By: Smith, James Edward,
   Edition: 1st Edition
   Publication info: London :Longman,1824
   Contributed by: Natural History Museum Library, London
   BHL Collections: Charles Darwin's Library
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6. Flora britannica / auctore Jacobo Edvardo Smith.
   By: Smith, James Edward,
   Publication info: Londini : Typis J. Davis, Veneunt apud J. White,1800-1804.
   Contributed by: Mertz Library, The New York Botanical Garden
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7. Florae Graecae prodromus; sive Plantarum omnium enumeratio, quas in provinciis aut insulis Graeciae invenit Johannes Sibthorp. Hic illic etiam insertae sunt pauculae species quas vir idem ... Graeciam versus navigans, in itinere, praesertim apud Italiam et Sic
   By: Sibthorp, John, - Smith, James Edward,
   Publication info: Londini,Typis Richardi Taylor, veneunt apud J. White,1806-13.
   Contributed by: Mertz Library, The New York Botanical Garden
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8. A grammar of botany : illustrative of artificial, as well as natural classification: with an explanation of Jussieu's system / by Sir James Edward Smith.
   By: Smith, James Edward,
   Publication info: London :Longman, Ree, Orme, Brown, and Green,1826.
   Contributed by: Mertz Library, The New York Botanical Garden
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9. A grammar of botany, illustrative of artificial, as well as natural, classification with an explanation of Jussieu's system.
   By: Smith, James Edward,
   Publication info: London,Longman,1821.
   Contributed by: Robarts - University of Toronto (archive.org)
   BHL Collections: Charles Darwin's Library
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10. Icones pictae plantarum rariorum descriptionibus et observationibus illustratae /Auctore J.E. Smith, M.D. Fasc. 1-3.
    By: Smith, James Edward,
    Publication info: London, 1790-93]
    Contributed by: Missouri Botanical Garden, Peter H. Raven Library
    BHL Collections: Missouri Botanical Garden's Rare Books Collection
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11. An introduction to physiological & systematical botany.
    By: Smith, James Edward, - Bigelow, Jacob,
    Edition: 1st American, from the 2d English ed., with notes, by Jacob Bigelow, M.D.
    Publication info: Philadelphia,A. Finley;1814.
    Contributed by: Mertz Library, The New York Botanical Garden
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12. An introduction to physiological and systematical botany / by Sir James Edward Smith.
    By: Smith, James Edward,
    Edition: 4th ed.
    Publication info: London :Printed for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown,1819.
    Contributed by: MBLWHOI Library, Woods Hole
    BHL Collections: Charles Darwin's Library | MBLWHOI Library, Woods Hole
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13. An introduction to physiological and systematical botany.
    By: Smith, James Edward,
    Publication info: London,Longman, Hurst, Reese, Orme,1807.
    Contributed by: Mertz Library, The New York Botanical Garden
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14. Introduction to physiological and systematical botany.
    By: Smith, James Edward,
    Edition: Ed. 4.
    Publication info: London,Longman,1819.
    Contributed by: Gerstein - University of Toronto (archive.org)
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15. An introduction to physiological and systematical botany. By James Edward Smith... .
    By: Smith, James Edward,
    Edition: 2nd ed.
    Publication info: London,Longman, Hurst, Reese, and Orme,1809.
    Contributed by: Mertz Library, The New York Botanical Garden
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16. Lachesis lapponica; or, A tour in Lapland, now first published from the original manuscript journal of ... Linnaeus; by James Edward Smith ...
    By: Linné, Carl von, - Smith, James Edward,
    Publication info: London :White and Cochrane,1811.
    Contributed by: University of California Libraries (archive.org)
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17. Memoir and correspondence of the late Sir James Edward Smith, Ed. by Lady Smith.
    By: Smith, James Edward, - Smith, Pleasance Reeve,
    Publication info: London,Longman, Rees, Orne Brown, Green and Longman,1832.
    Contributed by: Mertz Library, The New York Botanical Garden
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18. The natural history of the rarer lepidopterous insects of Georgia :including their systematic characters, the particulars of their several metamorphoses, and the plants on which they feed. Collected from the observation of Mr. John Abbot, many years resident in that country /by James Edward Smith.
    By: Smith, James Edward, - Abbot, John,
    Publication info: London : Printed by T. Bensley, for J. Edwards [etc.] 1797.
    Contributed by: Missouri Botanical Garden, Peter H. Raven Library
    BHL Collections: Missouri Botanical Garden's Rare Books Collection
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19. Outlines of botany : taken chiefly from Smith's Introduction ... For the use of schools and students / by Dr. John Locke ...
    By: Locke, John, - Smith, James Edward,
    Publication info: Boston :Cummings and Hilliard for the author,1819.
    Contributed by: University of California Libraries (archive.org)
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20. Plantarum icones hactenus ineditae,plerumque ad plantas in herbario Linnaeano conservatas delineatae.
    By: Smith, James Edward, - Linné, Carl von,
    Publication info: Londoni :Typis J. Davis,1789-1791.
    Contributed by: Missouri Botanical Garden, Peter H. Raven Library
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James Edward Smith, botanist, and first president of the Linnaean Society of London, was born on December 2, 1759 in Norwich, England. He was the eldest of seven children of a wealthy wool merchant, James Smith and his wife, Frances Kinderley. The father was well educated and a prominent member of the Dissenter community which included about one-third of the Norwich population. James Edward was a frail and timid child, and so his early education was entirely at home. His father engaged tutors for him and his mother encouraged an interest in plants and gardening; his own account relates that he began the serious study of botany when he was eighteen.

Smith’s father hoped that he would enter the family business, but that prospect did not attract him, and, in 1781, he entered the University of Edinburgh as a medical student. At that time, it was only possible to attend lectures in botany as a medical student. A further consideration, which led him to Edinburgh, was that neither Oxford nor Cambridge admitted non-Anglicans. After two years, Smith continued his medical education in London, and had barely settled in when he heard from his friend, Sir Joseph Banks, that the whole collection of Carl Linnaeus was up for sale. Smith consulted his father and the result was that the collection was purchased for the sum of 900 guineas, and arrived in London in October 1784. It consisted of Linnaeus’ library and herbarium, letters and manuscripts and much more, and was initially housed in rented rooms in London.

In London, Smith found his continuing medical education to be more and more unattractive, so he resolved to terminate it by obtaining a medical degree from the University of Leiden. This was accomplished in 1785, and he then set out on a European tour that included France and Italy. In 1788, he was back in London but he had little inclination to practice medicine, and began to devote himself to natural history studies. To this end, and because of his possession of the Linnaeus collections, he, along with Joseph Banks and others, founded the Linnaean Society of London with an original list of thirty-six Fellows, sixteen Associates, and more than fifty foreign members.

Smith lived in London until 1797, when he moved with his wife to Norwich with plans to spend only three months in London thereafter. The reasons for this were his continuing poor health and the fact that neither he nor his wife were interested in the society or social diversions which a great city offered. Smith’s colleagues in the Society were very upset at the idea that their president would not reside in town, but he kept these arrangements for the rest of his life. He made annual visits to London, maintained a voluminous correspondence with members of the Society and numerous others, and devoted the rest of his time to writing and lecturing.

The writings of James Edward Smith are a huge chapter in English botanical literature. They include over 3000 contributions to Rees’s Cyclopaedia (39 volumes, 1802-20), seven and a half volumes of Flora Graeca, which was the major work begun in the late 18th century by John Sibthorp, Oxford Professor of Botany; Flora Britannica, (2 volumes, 1800); English Botany, published and illustrated by James Sowerby, botanical text by Smith, (36 volumes, 1790-1814); The English Flora, (4 volumes, (1824-28).

Bibliography.

Margot Walker, Sir James Edward Smith, 1759-1828. London: 1988

Lady Smith, Memoir and Correspondence of the Late Sir James Edward Smith, M.D. London: 1832

Frans A. Stafleu, Taxonomic Literature, vol. 5. Pp. 679-680. Utrecht: 1985

Robert Erickson