Phytologia Britannica, natales exhibens indigenarum stirpium sponte emergentium.
[How (William)]
Publication details: London: Richard Cotes for Octavian Pulleyn,1650,
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First edition of this important seventeenth-century record of British flora. 'In the main a verbatim reprint of Johnson's Mercurius Botanicus. William How augmented the list with a number of other records of plants, a number [of which] are held to be of interest and value' (Henrey).In presenting both Latin and English terms for plant life, How's work offers a fascinating snapshot of botanical vernacular terminology; thus, 'Geranium Haematodes' becomes 'bloody cranes-bill'. and so on. Of particular interest are the specified localities where the plants may be found, for example, 'Hedgehogg Persley [...] in the corn fields around Bath'. The locations are both geographically very broad, and at the same time extraordinarily specific. For example, 'Turritis minor' or 'The lesser towers mustard' is to be found 'in a lane between Wulwich and Carleton'. This not only paints a distinctly bucolic picture of an area of London now known for its concrete plant, but also raises questions about knowledge-gathering in this period, and whether the author was well-travelled, or crowd sourced the information from like-minded botanists.