Tlie Free Libraries. 293 



cient clearness. With works upon botanical matters it is 

 different. The number of these is too vast for any 

 librarian's easy reference, and to ascertain what ground 

 they cover also very generally requires personal examina- 

 tion. In the aggregate, the three Free Libraries contain 

 quite a thousand distinct and independent works of this 

 latter class books treating of floriculture as well as of 

 botany very many of them single volumes, but the 

 average the same as that of the fashionable novel, the 

 grand total being, in other words, over three thousand, a 

 weight of literature pertaining to plants certainly without 

 parallel in any other English city after London. Our 

 remaining space we shall devote accordingly to a select 

 list of the botanical works, old and new, enumerating 

 them in chronological order. For in the eyes of the 

 accomplished student fine old books always count with 

 the great kings of history, 



The dead but sceptred sovereigns who still rule 

 Our spirits from their urns. 



Chet. signifies the Chetham; City, the King-street; and 

 P. P., the Peel Park or Salford Library.* 



A.D. 



1532. Brunfels: Herbarum Vivae eicones. Folio. 130 

 curious old woodcuts. Chet. 



* A complete catalogue of the thousand botanical works in the 

 Manchester Libraries, with notes upon their various contents, has 

 been prepared by the author of this volume, and only waits pub- 

 lication. Meantime it can be consulted by any person who may 

 wish to use it. 



