WITH NEARLY TEN THOUSAND ENGRAVINGS ON WOOD, 



Complete in One large Volume, 8vo. Price 41. 14s. 6d. bds. ; or in Nine Parts, 10. Gd. 

 each ; or Thirty-six Numbers, 2s. 6d. each, for the convenience of those who prefer 

 taking the Work in small portions from the beginning : 



AN ENCYCLOPEDIA OF PLANTS; 



COMPRISING 



THE DESCRIPTION, SPECIFIC CHARACTER, CULTURE, 

 HISTORY, APPLICATION IN THE ARTS, 



AND EVERY OTHER DESIRABLE PARTICULAR RESPECTING ALL THE PLANTS INDIGENOUS, 



CULTIVATED IN, OR INTRODUCED TO BRITAIN : 



Combining all the Advantages of a Linnean and a Jussieuean Species Plantarum, a Historia Plantarum, 

 a Grammar of Botany, and a Dictionary of Botany and Vegetable Culture. The whole in English, with 

 the Synonyms of the commoner Plants in the different European and other Languages ; the Scientific 

 Names accentuated, their Etymologies explained ; the Classes, Orders, and Botanical Terms illustrated 

 by Engravings ; and with Figures of nearly Ten Thousand Species, exemplifying several Individuals 

 belonging to every Genus included in the Work. 



EDITED BY J. C. LOUDON, F.L.S. H.S., &c. 



The Specific Characters, &c. by JOHN LINDLEY, F.R.S. L.S. and G.S., &c. 

 The Drawings by J. D. C. SOWERBY, F.L.S. j and 

 The Engravings by R. BRANSTON. 



" Our general impression of the work is, that, taking it altogether, it is the most extraordinary that 

 has yet appeared on any branch of science. Extraordinary for the immense mass of information con- 

 densed in so small a space ; extraordinary for the number and beauty of the engravings, and for the 

 extent of letterpress ; and extraordinary for the moderate price at which it is sold. We have the essence 

 of what, in the last edition of Millar's Dictionary, occupies four folio volumes ; in Sowerby's Botany 

 plates to the value of 50/. ; and in the Botanical Magazine, and Botanical Register, plates which sell for 

 upwards of 200 ; besides a quantity of original matter, to which we shall presently refer, and upwards 

 of 200 engravings of plants which have never before been figured in this or in any other publication 

 These engravings are made from dried specimens in the herbariums of Mr. Lambert and of Mr. Lindley' 

 and from living plants in the collection of Messrs. Loddiges ; and are not only an important addition to 

 botanical literature, but of themselves render the work a desideratum to the scientific botanical collector. 

 On the whole, London's Encyclopaedia of Plants is a most invaluable addition to our literature : it will be 

 more useful to beginners, and more instructive to general readers, than any botanical work in any lan- 

 guage ; and it will be as indispensable in a well-selected general library as an English or Latin dictionary." 

 Lit. Gazette. 



" With the ' Encyclopaedia of Plants ' for a companion, which speaks of every vegetable production, 

 'from the cedar of Lebanon to the hyssop which groweth on the wall,' we could range with enthusiastic 

 delight, through groves and gardens, in the pathless forest, the broad savannah, or the mountain glen 

 and could find ' society, where none intrudes,' in the sweet companionship of flowers, from their earliest 

 germ to the full expansion of their beauties in the summer's sun. There are two ways in which the study 

 may be pursued ; and one of these, at least the study of botanical prints and drawings, has little chance 

 of coming into disrepute so long as the arts continue to advance, as they are now doing, in accuracy of 

 design and brilliancy of execution. In this way, by having a numerous collection of good engravings 

 and descriptions of them, such as the work before us amply supplies, it is quite possible to learn and know 

 a great deal of botany without ever seeing a living flower, or without ever experiencing the delight of a 

 botanical excursion in the country. The ' Encyclopaedia of Plants ' cannot fail to be an excellent guide 

 for the accuracy of the descriptive details will enable the student to identify every plant he meets with* 

 from the forest tree to the tiniest moss ; and without such minute knowledge it is impossible to proceed 

 far in philosophical experiment and discovery. There is one feature of the descriptive portion of the 

 work, to which we would call particular attention, as perfectly original, and exceedingly ingenious and 

 useful. We are sorry that we cannot exemplify this, as its merits depend upon peculiar types, cast on 

 purpose for the work, by means of which a plant can be described in a space incredibly small. Upon this 

 invention, indeed, the cheapness of the book mainly depends, as it saves some hundreds of pages of letter- 

 press ; and as the types are hieroglyphic, they speak to the eye, and are equally, if not more distinct, than 

 words at length. The extent to which condensed description, and, we may add, condensed engravings, 

 have been carried hi the work before us, appears little short of miraculous, as the reader will the more 

 readily comprehend from the fact, that it would require several hundred pounds' worth of books to furnish 

 all the information given here for four guineas and a half. The engravings alone, indeed, must have cost, 

 we should imagine, eight or ten thousand pounds, and the other expenses probably amount to a similar 

 sum. Altogether we never saw so extraordinary a book ; as every body, from the most illiterate gardener 

 to the most erudite botanist, must be astonished at the multitudinous mass of information it contains in 

 so small a compass. In fact, it appears to us not a whit less wonderful than the fabled story of the Iliad 

 in a nut-shell." Monthly Review. 



" We should convey a very imperfect idea of the Encyclopaedia of Plants, were we only to mention that 

 it contains the generic and specific characters of 16,712 species of plants which have grown on British 

 soil. These characters are accompanied by figures of nearly 10,000 of the plants, engraved on wood. 

 When we say that these are executed from drawings by Mr. J. D. C. Sowerby, expressly for the work, it 

 will be at once conceived that their execution is good. It is indeed excellent ; and considering the neces- 

 sary smallness of the figures, they are highly characteristic. The whole, we may confidently assert, 



forms a book perfectly sui generis. The quantity of matter is truly astonishing ; and the entire publica- 

 tion is offered at a price so moderate (four and a half guineas) that we can hardly dare to hope it will do 

 more than cover the expenses of the public-spirited booksellers, who have spared no cost to render it> 

 what we confidently pronounce it to be, the most useful and the most popular botanical work that has 

 ever appeared in the English language." Jameson's Edin. New Phil, Journ. 



