Elements of Botany

Employed early in his career by Sir Joseph Banks the botanist John Lindley (1799-1865) 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 systematically 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.