Withering, William

An Arrangement Of British Plants

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Birmingham printed for the Author by M. Swinney 1796 According to the latest Improvements of the Linnæan System. To which is prefixed, an Easy Introduction to the Study of Botany. Illustrated by Copper Plates. 31 engraved plates (one folding and one hand-coloured). Third Edition. 4 volumes. 8vo. xii, 402 pp; [2]ff, 512pp; [2]ff, 513-920pp; [2]ff, 420 [i.e. 418], [1] pp. Bound in contemporary tree calf, the covers with a gilt "Greek-key" roll border, recently rebacked in calf, the spines divided into six panels by a gilt fillet and pallet, lettered in the second panel and numbered in the fourth on green goatskin labels, the other panels tooled with a flower head, marbled endleaves, sprinkled edges. (Corners repaired). Some light browning and spotting but a good copy. Plates 17 and 18 appear in vol.4 (as directed) and plate 23 is bound upside down. In vol.4 p.418 is numbered 420. This is regarded as the best edition of the first flora of British plants to use Linnæan binomial nomenclature, and the first complete scientific classification and description of British plants in the English language. Henrey goes so far as to call it "the first outstanding work on British plants to be published in English". The first edition of 1776 was in two volumes and "was little more than a translation of the portions of Linnaeus's writings relevant to English botany. As Withering acquired more botanical experience, however, his Botanical Arrangement became increasingly based on first-hand observations. In the last edition published during his lifetime (1796), Withering effected a number of important taxonomic changes in the Linnæan system. He also surveyed the British cryptogams, a class of plants imperfectly described by Linnæus" (DSB).

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• ordernr.: ebc2034

• bookseller: George Bayntun (GREAT BRITAIN)