Abstract
The origins of field guides and other plant identification manuals have been poorly understood until now because little attention has been paid to 18th century botanical identification guides. Identification manuals came to have the format we continue to use today when botanical instructors in post-Revolutionary France combined identification keys (step-wise analyses focusing on distinctions between plants) with the “natural method” (clustering of similar plants, allowing for identification by gestalt) and alphabetical indexes. Botanical works featuring multiple but linked techniques to enable plant identification became very popular in France by the first decade of the 19th century. British botanists, however, continued to use Linnaeus’s sexual system almost exclusively for another two decades. Their reluctance to use other methods or systems of classification can be attributed to a culture suspicious of innovation, anti-French sentiment and the association of all things Linnaean with English national pride, fostered in particular by the President of the Linnean Society of London, Sir James Edward Smith. The British aversion to using multiple plant identification technologies in one text also helps explain why it took so long for English botanists to adopt the natural method, even after several Englishmen had tried to introduce it to their country. Historians of ornithology emphasize that the popularity of ornithological guides in the 19th and 20th centuries stems from their illustrations, illustrations made possible by printing technologies that improved illustration quality and reduced costs. Though illustrations are the most obvious features of late 19th century and 20th century guides, the organizational principles that make them functional as identification devices come from techniques developed in botanical works in the 18th century.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Adanson Michel. 1966. Familles des Plantes. Lehre: J. Cramer
Aeschimann, David, Lauber, Konrad, Moses, Daniel, Martin and Theurillat, Jean-Paul. 2004. Flora Alpina, 3 vols, Vol. 1. Bern: Haupt Verlag
Allen David Elliston. 1976. The Naturalist in Britain: A Social History. London: Allen Lane
Allen David. E. 1996. The Struggle for Specialist Journals: Natural History in the British Periodicals Market in the First Half of the Nineteenth Century. Archives of natural history 23(1): 107–123
Allen, David Elliston. 2001. “Natural History in Britain in the Eighteenth Century.” In Naturalists and Society: The Culture of Natural History. Aldershot: Ashgate Variorum, pp. 333–347
Allford, J.M. 1999. “List of the Published Works of John Lindley.” Stearn, William T. (ed.), John Lindley, 1799–1865: Gardener-Botanist and Pioneer Orchidologist. Woodbridge, Suffolk: The Antique Collectors’ Club in association with the Royal Horticultural Society, pp. 197–218
Allmon Warren. D. 2007. The Evolution of Accuracy in Natural History Illustration: Reversal of Printed Illustrations of Snails and Crabs in Pre-Linnaean Works Suggests Indifference to Morphological Detail. Archives of Natural History 34(1): 174–191
de Almeida, Hermione. 1991. Romantic Medicine and John Keats. Oxford University Press
Arber Agnes. Robertson. 1938. Herbals: Their Origin and Evolution, A Chapter in the History Of Botany (1470–1670). 2 ed. Cambridge: University Press
Atran Scott. 1990. Cognitive Foundations of Natural History: Toward an Anthropology of Science. New York: Cambridge University Press
Barrow Mark Velpeau. Jr. 1998. A Passion for Birds: American Ornithology After Audubon. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press
Bentham, George. 1865. Handbook of the British flora; A Description of the Flowering Plants and Ferns Indigenous To, or Naturalized In, the British Isles. For the Use of Beginners and Amateurs … with Illustrations from Original Drawings by W. Fitch, 2nd ed., 2 vols, Vol. 1. London: Lovell Reeve & Co
Bentham, George. 1997. George Bentham: Autobiography, 1800–1834. Marion Filipiuk (ed.). Toronto: University of Toronto Press
Bergeret, [Jean-Pierre]. 1783–1784. Phytonomatotechnie universelle. Paris: l’auteur, Didot, et Poisson
Berkenhout John. 1770. Outlines of the Natural history of Great Britain and Ireland. Vol. 2. London: P. Elmsly
Berkenhout, John. 1795. Synopsis of the Natural history of Great-Britain and Ireland ... Being a Third Edition of the Outlines, &c. Corrected and Considerably Enlarged. Comprehending the Vegetable Kingdom, Vol. 2. London: T. Cadell
Bewick, Thomas. 1797. History of British Birds, the Figures Engraved on Wood by T.␣Bewick, 2 vols. Newcastle: Sol Hodgson for Beiley & Bewick
Biedleman, Linda H. and Kozloff, Eugene N. 2003. Plants of the San Francisco Bay region, Revised ed. Berkeley: University of California Press
Blunt Wilfrid. 1971. The Compleat Naturalist: A Life of Linnaeus. New York: Viking
Boerhaave, Herman. 1719. A Method of Studying Physick. Translated by Samber. London: H. P. for C. Rivington … B. Creake … and J. Sackfield
Bornbusch Alan H. 1989. Lacépède and Cuvier: A Comparative Case Study of Goals and Methods in Late Eighteenth- and Early Nineteenth-Century Fish Classification. Journal of the History of Biology 22(1): 141–161
Brown Paul Martin, Folsom Stan. 2006. Wild Orchids of the Canadian Maritimes and Northern Great Lakes Region. Gainesville: University Press of Florida
Bruce-Grey Plant Committee, Owen Sound Field Naturalists. 1997. A Guide to the Orchids of Bruce and Grey Counties, Ontario. Owen Sound: Stan Brown Printers Limited
Bucquet. 1773. Introduction à l’étude des corps naturels, tirés du règne végétal, 2 vols. Paris: la Veuve Herissant
Buffon, Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de. 1749. Histoire naturelle générale et particulière, avec la description du Cabinet du Roy, 15 vols, Vol. 2. Paris: Impremerie Royale
Candolle, A[ugustin]-P[yramus] de. 1813. Théorie élémentaire de la botanique, ou exposition des principes de la classification naturelle et de l’art de décrire et d’étudier les végétaux. Paris: Déterville
Candolle, Augustin-Pyramus de. 2003. Augustin-Pyramus de Candolle: mémoires et souvenirs (1778–1841). Edited by Candaux, Jean-Daniel and Drouin, Jean-Marc: Georg
Cantor, Geoffrey, Dawson, Gowan, Gooday, Graeme, Noakes, Richard, Shuttleworth, Sally and Topham, Jonathan R. 2004. Science in the Nineteenth-Century Periodical: Reading the Magazine of Nature. Cambridge Studies in Nineteenth-Century Literature and Culture (No. 45). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Carteret, Xavier. 2008. “Michel Adanson (1727–1806) et la méthode naturelle de classification.” Ph D thesis. Paris: école des Hautes études en Sciences Sociales
Chapman William K. 1997. Orchids of the Northeast. A Field Guide. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press
Christofides, Yiannis. 2001. The Orchids of Cyprus. A Guide to the Cyprus Orchids. Platres, Cyprus: n.p
Clark J.F.M. 2006. History from the Ground Up: Bugs, Political Economy, and God in Kirby and Spence’s Introduction to Entomology (1815–1856). Isis 97: 28–55
Comber J.B. 2001. Orchids of Sumatra. Richmond, Surrey: Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
Cooper Alix. 2007. Inventing the Indigenous: Local Knowledge and Natural History in Early Modern Europe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Coues Elliott. 1872. Key to North American Birds, Containing a Concise Accounte of Every Species of Living and Fossil Bird at Present Known from the Continent North of the Mexican and United States Boundary. Illustrated by 6 Steel Plates, and Upwards of 250 Woodcuts. Salem: Naturalists’ Agency
Cowrie, I.D., Short, P.S. and Osterkamp Madsen, M. 2000. Floodplain Flora: A Flora of the Coastal Floodplains of the Northern Territory, Australia. Flora of Australia Supplementary Series Number 10. Canberra: Australia Biological Resources Study
Cribb, Phillip and Whister, W. Arthur. 1996. Orchids of Samoa. n.p.: Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
Davy de Virville Adrien. 1954. Histoire de la botanique en France. Nice: Comité Français du VIII Congrès International de Botanique
Daudin, Henri. [1926]. De Linné à Jussieu. Méthodes de la classification et idée de série en botanique et en zoologie (1740–1790). Paris: Libraire Félix Alcan
Dayrat Benoît. 2003. Les botanistes et la flore de France: trois siècles de découvertes. Paris: Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle
Desmond Ray. 2003. Great Natural History Books and Their Creators. London: British Library
Dickinson Timothy, Metsger Deborah, Bull Jenny, Dickinson Richard 2004. The ROM Field Guide to Wildflowers of Ontario. Toronto: Royal Ontario Museum
Drayton Richard Harry. 2000. Nature’s Goverment: Science, Imperial Britain, and the ‹Improvement’ of the World. New Haven: Yale University Press
du Petit-Thouars, Aubert. 1811a. “Dissertation sur l’enchaînement des êtres, lue en la séance publique du Collége des Philalèthes de Lille, du 19 mai 1788.” In Mélanges de botanique et de voyages. Paris: Arthus Bertrand, pp. 1–48
du Petit-Thouars, Aubert. 1811b. “Observations sur les plantes des isles australes de l’Afrique.” In Mélanges de botanique et de voyages. Paris: Arthus Bertrand
Dubois, [François-Noël-Alexandre]. 1803. Méthode éprouvée, avec laquelle on peut parvenir facilement, et sans maître, à connoître les Plantes de l’intérieur de la France, et en particulier celle des environs d’Orléans. Ouvrage infiniment utile aux personnes qui passent une partie de l’année à la campagne, et aux jeunes gens auxquels on veut inspirer du goût pour l’Histoire naturelle. Orléans: Darnault-Maurant
Dunlap, Tom. Tom Dunlap on Early Bird Guides January 2005 [cited June 21 2007]. Available from http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/eh/10.1/gallery.html
Dunne Pete. 2003. Pete Dunne on Bird Watching: The How-To, Where-To, and when-to. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Field Guides
Duris, Pascal. 1997. “Lamarck et la botanique linnéenne.” Goulven Laurent (ed.), Jean-Baptiste Lamarck 1744–1829. Paris: CTHS (Comité des travaux historiques et scientifiques), pp. 253–266
Ewan Joseph, Ewan Nesta. 1963. John Lyon, Nurseryman and Plant Hunter, and his Journal, 1799–1814. Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, n.s. 53(2): 1–69
Fleming John. 1822. The Philosophy of Zoology; or a General View of the Structure, Functions, and Classification of Animals. Edinburgh: Archibald Constable & Co
Ford Brian J. 2003. Scientific Illustration in the Eighteenth Century. In Porter R. (ed) Eighteenth-Century Science. 561–583. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Freedberg David. 2002. The Eye of the Lynx: Galileo, His Friends, and the Beginnings of Modern Natural History. Chicago: University of Chicago Press
Gentry Alwyn H., Vasquez Rodolfo. 1996. A Field Guide to the Families and Genera of Woody Plants of Northwest South America (Colombia, Ecuador, Peru) with Supplementary Notes on Herbaceous Taxa. Chicago: University of Chicago Press
Gilibert, Jean Emmanuel and de la Tourette, Louis Claret de Fleurieu. 1797. Démonstrations élémentaires de botanique, contenant les Principes généraux de cette Science, l’explication des termes, les fondamens des Méthodes, & les élémens de la physique des végétaux. La description des Plantes les plus communes, les plus curieuses, les plus utiles, rangées suivant la Méthode de M. DE TOURNEFORT & celle du Chevalier LINNé. Leurs usages & leurs propriétés dans les Arts, l’économie rurale, dans la Médecine humaine & Vétérinaire; ainsi qu’une instruction sur la formation d’un Herbier, sur la dessication, la macération, l’infusion des plantes, &c. Torisieme édition, corrigé & considéralement augmentée, 3 ed., 3 vols. Lyon: Bruyset Frères
Givens Jean A. 2006. Reading and Writing the Illustrated Tractatus de herbis, 1280–1526. In Givens J.A., Reeds K.M., Touwaide A. (eds) Visualizing Medieval Medicine and Natural History, 1200–1500. 115–145. Burlington, Vermont: Ashgate
Gray, Samuel Frederick. 1821a. A Natural Arrangement of British plants, according to their relations to each other, as pointed out by Jussieu, de Candolle, Brown, &c. including those cultivated for use; with an introduction to Botany, in which the terms newly introduced are explained; illustrated by figures, 2 vols. London: Baldwin, Cradock, and Joy
Gray, Samuel Frederick. 1821. A Supplement to the Pharmacopoeia. 2nd ed. London: Thomas and George Underwood
Griffiths Antony 2004. Prints for Books: Book Illustration in France, 1760–1800. London: British Library
Guillemin. 1825. “Notice necrologique sur F.N.A. Dubois, chanoine de l’eglise d’Orleans.” Bulletin des Sciences Naturelles 5(5): 100–101
Hawthorne William, Jongkind Carl. 2006. Woody Plants of Western African Forests. A Guide to the Forest Trees, Shrubs and Lianes from Senegal to Ghana. Richmond, Surrey: Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
te Heesen Anke. 2005. Accounting for the Natural World: Double-Entry Bookkeeping in the Field. In Schiebinger L., Swann C. (eds), Colonial Botany: Science, Commerce, and Politics in the Early Modern World. 237–251. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press
Henrey, Blanche. 1975. British Botanical and Horticultural Literature Before 1800: Comprising a History and Bibliography of Botanical and Horticultural Books Printed in England, Scotland, and Ireland from the Earliest Times Until 1800, 3 vols, Vol. 1. London: Oxford University Press
Heywood V.H. 1985. Linnaeus – the Conflict Between Science and Scholasticism. In Weinstock J. (eds) Contemporary Perspectives on Linnaeus. 1–15. Lanham: University Press of America
Hill, John. 1770. The Vegetable System, 2nd ed., Vol. 1. London
Jussieu Antoine-Laurent de. 1789. Genera plantarum secundum ordines naturales disposita. Paris: Herissant & Theophilum Barrois
Knight, David M. 1981. Ordering the World. London: Burnett Books
Koerner Lisbet. 1995. Women and Utility in Enlightenment Science. Configurations 3(2): 233–255
Koerner Lisbet. 1999. Linnaeus: Nature and Nation. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press
Kusukawa Sachiko. 2000. Illustrating Nature. In Frasca-Spada M., Jardine N. (eds) Books and the Sciences in History. 90–113. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Kusukawa, Sachiko. 2000b. “The Historia Piscium (1686).” Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London 54(2): 179–197
Lahring Heinjo. 2003. Water and Wetland Plants of the Prairie Provinces. Regina: Canadian Plains Research Center, University of Regina
Lamarck, [Jean-Baptiste Pierre de Monet de]. 1779. Flore françoise [sic] ou description succincte de toutes les plantes qui croissent naturellement en France, disposées selon une nouvelle méthode d’analyse, & à laquelle on a joint la citation de leurs vertus les moins équivoques en médecine, & de leur utilité dans les arts, Vol. 1. Paris: Impremerie Royale
Larson James L. 1967. Linnæus and the Natural Method. Isis 58(3): 304–320
Larson James L. 1971. Reason and Experience: The Representation of Natural Order in the Work of Carl von Linné. Berkeley: University of California Press
Leclair Edmond. 1908. Les Lestiboudois (Jean-Baptiste, François-Joseph, Thémistocle): botanistes Lillois. Bulletin de la Société d’Etudes de la Province de Cambrai 12: 39–91
Lestiboudois François-Joseph. 1781. Botanographie Belgique, ou méthode pour connoître facilement toutes les Plantes qui croissent naturellement, ou que l’on cultive communément dans les Provinces septentrionales de la France. Lille: J. B. Henry
Lestiboudois, François-Joseph. 1799. Botanographie Belgique, 2nd ed., 3 in 4 vols, Vol. 1. Lille: Vanackere
Lewis Rhodri. 2007. Language, Mind and Nature: Artificial Languages in England from Bacon to Locke. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Lindley, John. 1829. An Introductory Lecture Delivered in the University of London on Thursday, April 30, 1829. London: John Taylor
Lindley John. 1846. The Vegetable Kingdom, or, the Structure, Classification, and Uses of Plants, Illustrated Upon the Natural System. With Upwards of Five Hundred Illustrations. London: For the author, by Bradbury & Evans
Lindley, John and Smith, James Edward, Sir. 1825. A Letter to the Editors of the Philosophical Magazine and Journal; upon the correspondence between Sir James Edward Smith and Mr. Lindley, which has lately appeared in that journal. London: James Ridgway and Sons
Linnaeus. 1735. Systema naturae. Lugduni Batavorum: Theodorum Haak
Linnaeus. 1737. Critica Botanica. Leiden: Conrad Wishoff & fil
Linnaeus Carolus. 1738. Classes Plantarum. Lugduni Batavorum: Conradum Wishoff
Linnaeus Carolus. 1751. Philosophia Botanica. Stockholmiae: Godofr. Kiesewetter
Linnaeus Carolus. 1754. Genera Plantarum. 5th ed. Holmiae: Laurentii Salvii
Linnaeus, Carolus. 2003. Philosophia Botanica. Translated by Freer, Stephen. Oxford: Oxford University Press
Linnaeus, [Carolus von]. 1764. Genera Plantarum, 6th ed. Holmiae: Laurentii Salvii
Linnaeus, [Carolus von]. 1787. The families of plants, with their natural characters, acording to the number, figure, situation, and proportion of all the parts of fructification. Translated from the last edition (as published by Dr. Reichard) of the Genera Plantarum, and of the Mantissae Plantarum, of the elder Linnaeus; and from the Supplementum Plantarum of the younger Linnaeus, with all the new families of plants, from Thunberg and L’Heritier … Vol. 1. Lichfield: “A Botanical Society.”
López González Ginés A. 2002. Guía de los árboles y arbustos de la Península Ibérica y Baleares. Madrid: Ediciones Mundi-Prensa
Maat Jaap. 2004. Philosophical Languages in the Seventeenth Century: Dalgarno, Wilkins, Leibniz. Dordrecht: Kluwer
Mabberley D.J. 1985. Jupiter Botanicus: Robert Brown of the British Museum. Braunschweig: Verlag von J. Cramer
MacKay, James Townsend. 1836. Flora Hibernica, Comprising the Flowering Plants, Ferns, Characeae, Musci, Hepaticae, Lichenes, and Algae of Ireland, Arranged According to the Natural System, with a Synopsis of the Genera According to the Linnaean system. Dublin: William Curray Jun. and co.; London: Simpkin Marshall and Co.; Edinburgh: Fraser and Co
MacLeay, W[illiam] S[harpe]. 1821. Horae Entomologicae: or Essays on the Annulose Animals, Vol. 1. London: S. Bagster
Magnin-Gonze Joëlle. 2004. Histoire de la botanique. Lausanne: Delachaux et Niestlé
McMahon, Susan. 2002. “Classification: Sorting Out Early Modern England (draft).”
McMahon Susan. 2005. Boundary Work: ‹National Quarrels and Party Factions’ in Eighteenth-Century British Botany. In Knight D.M., Eddy M.D. (eds) Science and Beliefs: From Natural Philosophy to Natural Science, 1700–1900. 43–61. Aldershot: Ashgate
McOuat Gordon R. 2001. Cataloguing Power: Delineating ‹Competent Naturalists’ and the Meaning of Species in the British Museum. British Journal for the History of Science 34(120): 1–28
McOuat, Gordon R. 2001b. “From Cutting Nature at its Joints to Measuring It: New Kinds and New Kinds of People in Biology.” Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A 32(4): 613–645
Milne Colin. 1770. A Botanical Dictionary: or Elements of Systematic and Philosophical Botany. London: William Griffin
Milne, Colin. 1771. Institutes of botany; containing accurate, compleat and easy descriptions of all the known genera of plants: translated from the Latin of the celebrated Charles von Linné, ... To which are prefixed, I. A view of the ancient and present state of botany. II.␣A synopsis, exhibiting the essential or striking characters which serve to discriminate genera. London: W. Griffin
Müller-Wille Staffan. 2007. Collection and Collation: Theory and Practice of Linnaean Botany. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences 38(3): 541–562
Müller-Wille, Staffan. 2007b. “Introduction.” In Carl Linnaeus. Musa Cliffortiana: Clifford’s Banana Plant. With an Introduction by S. Müller-Wille. Translated by S. Freer. Vienna: International Association for Plant Taxonomy
Müller-Wille Staffan, Reeds Karen 2007. A Translation of Carl Linnaeus’s Introduction to Genera plantarum (1737). Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences 38(3): 563–572
Múnera-Roldán Claudia, Córdoba-Córdoba Sergio 2007. El arte de ilustrar Aves, una breve reseña de la historia del arte en la ornitología. Boletín SAO 17(1): 1–9
Nuttall, Thomas. 1818. The Genera of North American Plants, and a Catalogue of the Species to the Year 1817, 2 vols. Philadelphia: for the author
Nuttall Thomas. 1827. An Introduction to Systematic and Physiological Botany. Cambridge, MA: Hilliard and Brown
Nuttall Thomas. 1830. An Introduction to Systematic and Physiological Botany. 2 ed. Cambridge, MA: Hilliard and Brown
Nuttall, Thomas. 1832–1834. A Manual of the Ornithology of the United States and Canada, 2 vols. Hilliard and Brown
Ogilvie Brian W. 2006. The Science of Describing: Natural History in Renaissance Europe. Chicago: University of Chicago Press
Parrish, Susan Scott 2006. American Curiosity: Cultures of Natural History in the Colonial British Atlantic World. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press
Pavord Anna. 2005. The Naming of Names: The Search for Order in the World of Plants. London: Bloomsbury
Raven Charles E. 1986. John Ray, Naturalist: His Life and His Works. 2 ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Ray, John. 1686–1704. Historia Plantarum. London: H. Faithorne
Ray, John. 1848. The Correspondence of John Ray. Edwin Lankester (ed.). London: Ray Society
Redi, Carlo Alberto, Garagna, Silvia, Zuccotti, Maurizio, Capanna, Ernesto and Zacharia, Helmut (eds.). 2000. Visual Zoology: The Pavia Collection of Leuckart’s Zoological Wall Charts (1877). Pavia: Ibis
Reeds Karen. 2004. When the Botanist can’t Draw: the Case of Linnaeus. Interdisciplinary Science Reviews 29(3): 248–258
Richard, Louis-Claude and Lindley, John. 1819. Observations on the structure of fruits and seeds, translated from the Analyse du fruit of M. Louis-Claude Richard … Comprising the author’s latest corrections; and illustrated with plates and original notes by John Lindley. Translated by Lindley, John. London: John Harding
Robson Stephen. 1777. The British Flora. York: W. Blanchard and Company
Roscoe William. 1815. On Artificial and Natural Arrangements of Plants: and Particularly on the Systems of Linnaeus and Jussieu. Transactions of the Linnean Society 11: 50–78
Roscoe, William. 1830. “On Artificial and Natural Arrangements of Plants: and Particularly on the␣Systems of Linnaeus and Jussieu.” Philosophical Magazine 7(37): 15–23, 7(38): 97–104; 7(39): 180–185
Rossi, Paolo. 2000. Logic and the Art of Memory: The Quest for a Universal Language. Translated by Clucas, Stephen. London: The Athlone Press
Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. 1796. Letters on the elements of botany, addressed to a lady, by the celebrated J. J. Rousseau. Translated into English, with notes, and twenty-four additional letters, fully explaining the system of Linnaeus. Translated by Martyn, Thomas, 5 ed. London: B. and J. White
Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. 1983. Le botaniste sans maître, ou, manière d’apprendre seul la botanique; fragments␣pour un dictionnaire des termes d’usage en botanique. Edited by Haudricourt, A.␣G. Paris: Éditions A.M. MÉtailiÉ
Salisbury, William. 1816. The Botanist’s Companion, or An Introduction to the Knowledge of Practical Botany, and the Uses of Plants Either Growing Wild in Great Britain, or Cultivated for the Purposes of Agriculture, Medicine, Rural Oeconomy, or the Arts. London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown
Saunders Samuel. 1792. A Short and Easy Introduction to Scientific and Philosophic Botany. London: B. White and Sons
Scharf, Sara Tovah. 2007. “Identification Keys and the Natural Method: The Development of Text-Based Information Management Tools in Botany in the Long Eighteenth Century.” Ph D thesis. Toronto: University of Toronto
Schiebinger Londa. 2003. The Philosopher’s Beard: Women and Gender in Science. In Porter R. (eds) Eighteenth-Century Science. 184–210. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Schiebinger Londa. 2004. Plants and Empire: Colonial Bioprospecting in the Atlantic World. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press
Schmidt Diane. 1999. A Field Guide to Field Guides: Identifying the Natural History of North America. Englewood, Colorado: Libraries Unlimited
Schmidt Diane. 2006. Field Guides in Academe: A Citation Study. Journal of Academic Librarianship 32(3): 274–285
Secord Anne. 1996. Artisan Botany. In Jardine N., Secord J.A., Spary E.C. (eds) Cultures of Natural History. 378–393. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Secord Anne. 2002. Botany on a Plate. Isis 93: 28–57
Shteir Ann B. 1996. Cultivating Women, Cultivating Science : Flora’s Daughters and Botany in England, 1760–1860. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press
Slaughter Mary M. 1982. Universal Languages and Scientific Taxonomy in the Seventeenth Century. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Smellie, William. 1790. The Philosophy of Natural History. Edinburgh: the heirs of Charles Elliot and C. Elliot and T. Kay, T. Cadel, and G. G. J. & J. Robinsons
Smith James Edward. 1798. Discourse on the Rise and Progress of Natural History. In Smith, James Edward (eds) Tracts Relating to Natural History. 49–162. London: J. Davis
Smolker Robert E. 1967. Birds of North America. A Guide to Field Identification. Chandler S. Robbins; Bertel Brun; Herbert S. Zim. The Quarterly Review of Biology 42(4): 556–558
Sowerby, James and Smith, James Edward, Sir. 1814. General indexes to the thirty-six volumes of English botany; to which is added, an alphabetical index to English fungi; making together, a catalogue of indigenous British plants. London: James Sowerby
Spary Emma C. 2000. Utopia’s Garden: French Natural History from Old Regime to Revolution. Chicago: University of Chicago Press
Stafleu, Frans A. 1966. “Introduction.” In Familles des plantes. Lehre: J. Cramer
Stafleu Frans Antoine. 1971. Linnaeus and the Linnaeans: The Spreading of Their Ideas in Systematic Botany, 1735–1789. Utrecht: A. Oosthoek
Stearn W.T. 1959. The Background of Linnaeus’s Contributions to the Nomenclature and Methods of Systematic Biology. Systematic Zoology 8(1): 4–22
Stearn William T. 1986. The Wilkins Lecture, 1985: John Wilkins, John Ray and Carl Linnaeus. Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London 40(2): 101–123
Stearn William T. 1989. S. F. Gray’s Natural Arrangement of British Plants (1821). Plant Systematics and Evolution 167(1–2): 23–34
Stearn William T., Bridson Gavin D.R. 1978. Carl Linnaeus 1707–1778: A Bicentenary Guide to the Career and Achievements of Linnaeus and the Collections of the Linnean Society. Cambridge: Linnean Society of London
Stevens Peter F. 1994. The Development of Biological Systematics: Antoine-Laurent de Jussieu, Nature, and the Natural System. New York: Columbia University Press
Stevenson, R.D., Haber, William A. and Morris, Robert A. 2003. “Electronic Field Guides and User Communities in the Eco-Informatics Revolution.” Conservation Ecology 7(1): 3 [article 3 – unpaginated]
Stuart, John, Earl of Bute. 1787. The Tabular Distribution of British Plants, Part I. Containing the genera: J. Davis
Tournefort, Joseph Pitton de. 1694. Elémens de botanique, ou methode pour connoître les plantes. Paris: Imprimerie Royale
Tournefort, Joseph Pitton de, and Jolyclerc, Nicolas. 1797. Elémens de botanique, ou méthode pour connoitre les plantes, par Pitton de Tournefort. Edition augmentée de tous les supplémens donnés par Antoine de Jussieu; enrichie d’une concordance avec les classes, les ordres du systême sexuel de Linné, et les familles naturelles créées par␣Antoine-Laurent de Jussieu [sic]; mise à la portée de tous les hommes par l’interprétation française du texte grec ou latin des espèces admises dans les auteurs, par des additions très-considérables au dictionnaire des termes du botaniste, etc. Par N.␣Jolyclerc … 6 vols. Lyon: Pierre Bernuset et comp
Trelease William, Bailey W. Whitman, Knowlton F.H. 1886. Arrangement of Herbaria, Etc. Botanical Gazette 11(5): 120–121
Turner A.J. 1978. Andrew Paschall’s Tables of Plants for the Universal Language, 1678. The Bodleian Library Record 9: 346–350
Weeks Sally S., Weeks Harmon P. Jr., Parker George R. 2005. Native Trees of the Midwest: Identification, Wildlife Values, and Landscaping Use. West Lafayette, IN: Purdue University Press
Weidensaul Scott. 2007. Of a Feather: A Brief History of American Birding. Orlando: Harcourt
Williams Roger L. 2001. Botanophilia in Eighteenth-Century France. International Archives of the History of Ideas 179. Dordrecht: Kluwer
Withering, William. 1776. A Botanical Arrangement of all the Vegetables Naturally Growing in Great Britain … Illustrated by Copper Plates and a Copious Glossary. Birmingham: M. Swinney
Withering William, Stokes Jonathan 1787. A Botanical Arrangement of British Plants. 2nd ed. Birmingham: M. Swinney
Wunderlin Richard P., Hansen Bruce F. 2003. Guide to the Vascular Plants of Florida. 2 ed. Gainesville: University Press of Florida
Acknowledgements
The research for this article was supported by a SSHRC Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship for Sara Scharf (2003–2006) and a Library and Archives Visiting Fellowship at King’s College London (2007). Mary P. “Polly” Winsor, Charissa Varma, Nadia Talent, three anonymous reviewers, and, especially, Staffan Müller-Wille and Renzo Baldasso provided helpful feedback on draft versions.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Scharf, S.T. Identification Keys, the “Natural Method,” and the Development of Plant Identification Manuals. J Hist Biol 42, 73–117 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10739-008-9161-0
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10739-008-9161-0