Elements of Botany

Employed early in his career by Sir Joseph Banks the botanist John Lindley (17991865) is best known for his recommendation that Kew Gardens should become a national botanical institution and for saving the Royal Horticultural Society from financial disaster. As an author he is best remembered for his works on taxonomy and classification. A partisan of the ''natural'' system rather than the Linnaean Lindley published this 1841 work the fourth edition of his Outline of the First Principles of Botany under a new title to emphasise not only that it was ''much extended and it is hoped improved'' but also that it was a textbook for students of ''structural physiological systematical and medical'' botany. He defines the different elements of a plant and provides a checklist for identification of plant families before discussing the various ''natural'' systems of classification including his own and the different practical uses of plants.