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A member, and later president, of the Académie des Sciences, French botanist and doctor René Louiche Desfontaines (1750–1833) spent the years 1783–5 on an expedition to North Africa. During his time in Tunisia and Algeria, he collected over a thousand plant specimens: more than three hundred genera were new to European naturalists at this time. Having succeeded Le Monnier in the chair of botany at the Jardin du Roi in 1786, Desfontaines helped found the Institut de France following the Revolution and published his two-volume Flora atlantica in Latin in 1798–9. A lavishly illustrated second edition appeared in four volumes in 1800. Combining its two volumes of plates into one, this reissue will give modern researchers an insight into the promulgation of pioneering plant science. Volume 1 contains the first thirteen classes of plants in the Linnaean system of taxonomy, from Monandria to Polyandria.
Trained as a gardener in his native Scotland, William Aiton (1731–93) had worked in the Chelsea Physic Garden prior to coming to Kew in 1759. He met Joseph Banks in 1764, and the pair worked together to develop the scientific and horticultural status of the gardens. Aiton had become superintendent of the entire Kew estate by 1783. This important three-volume work, first published in 1789, took as its starting point the plant catalogue begun in 1773. In its compilation, Aiton was greatly assisted with the identification and scientific description of species, according to the Linnaean system, by the botanists Daniel Solander and Jonas Dryander (the latter contributed most of the third volume). Aiton added dates of introduction and horticultural information. An important historical resource, it covers some 5,600 species and features a selection of engravings. Volume 2 continues to catalogue the plants, covering Octandria to Monadelphia.
Collated by his widow and published in 1897, this collection of memorials, journal extracts and letters of Charles Cardale Babington (1808–95) demonstrates the esteem in which he was held by so many. An influential professor of botany at Cambridge, Babington left to the university a legacy that included the huge herbarium that he had partly funded himself, as well as some 1,600 volumes from his own library. His benevolence and generosity of knowledge, time and money endeared him to many departments and societies, while his works on local flora inspired others to produce many of the county floras that are still used today. His Manual of British Botany (also reissued in this series) first appeared in 1843 and made a huge impact on the study of the subject. These collected writings and tributes will offer students and scholars valuable insight into the breadth of his scientific interests and achievements.
In coastal seas, from the tropics to the poles, seaweeds supply the energy required to support diverse coastal marine life and provide habitat for invertebrates and fish. Retaining the highly successful approach and structure of the first edition, this is a synthesis of the role of seaweeds in underpinning the functioning of coastal ecosystems worldwide. It has been fully updated to cover the major developments of the past twenty years, including current research on the endosymbiotic origin of algae, molecular biology including 'omics', chemical ecology, invasive seaweeds, photobiology and stress physiology. In addition to exploring the processes by which seaweeds, as individuals and communities, interact with their biotic and abiotic environment, the book presents exciting new research on how seaweeds respond to local and global environmental change. It remains an invaluable resource for students and provides an entry into the scientific literature of a wide range of topics.