Key Information
Reference code
Title
Date(s)
- 1796 (Creation)
Level of description
Item
Extent
1 vol
Scope and content
'Lectures on Botany by James Edward Smith, MD FRS, President of the Linnaean Society, delivered in the theatre, Guy's Hospital, 1796.' Manuscript volume of 18 lectures, titles include: A general view of the three kingdoms of nature; vegetable anatomy; parts of a plant; the various effects of light upon plants; the seed vessels; the sexual system of plants; the Linnaean system; illustrations of the Linnaean classes and orders. Also contains botanical illustrations 73 folios.
General Information
Name of creator
Biographical history
Born, Norwich, 1759; educated at home; began to study botany at eighteen; studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh, 1781, studying botany under Dr John Hope; studied in London under John Hunter and Dr William Pitcairn, 1783; purchased the library, manuscripts, herbarium, and natural history collections made by Linnæus and his father; devoted his studies to natural history, mainly botany; Fellow, Royal Society, 1785; travelled on the continent, visiting eminent naturalists, 1786-1787; medical degree, Leyden, 1786; Founder, 1788, President, 1788-1828, Linnean Society; lectured on botany and zoology, 1788; Lecturer on Botany, Guy's Hospital, 1788; published Sowerby's English Botany , 1790-1814; appointed to manage the Queen's herbarium, and teach her and her daughters botany and zoology, 1791; retired to Norwich, 1796; delivered an annual course of lectures at the Royal Institution, [1796]-1825; knighted, 1814; died, 1828. Publications include: Compendium Floræ Britannicæ (Londini, 1800); Exotic Botany: consisting of coloured figures and scientific descriptions of such new, beautiful, or rare plants as are worthy of cultivation in the gardens of Britain ... The figures by J Sowerby 2 volumes (London, 1804); Remarks on the generic characters of the decandrous papilionaceous plants of New Holland (London, [1804]); An Introduction to physiological and systematical Botany (London, 1807); A Review of the modern state of Botany, with a particular reference to the natural systems of Linnæus and Jussieu. From the second volume of the supplement to the Encyclopædia Britannica [Edinburgh, 1817?]; Considerations respecting Cambridge, more particularly relating to its Botanical professorship (London, 1818); A Grammar of Botany, illustrative of artificial, as well as natural classification; with an explanation of Jussieu's system (London, 1821); A Compendium of the English Flora (Longman & Co, London, 1829); The English Flora 5 volumes (London, 1824-36); English Botany, or coloured figures of British Plants. ... The figures by J Sowerby Second edition, edited by J De C Sowerby 12 volumes (London, [1832]-1846).