3-021-567 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The late Dr. Lindley, Professor of Botany, 1865. Engraving from a photograph by Messrs. Maull and Polyblank of Dr. John Lindley, '...one of the most eminent of modern English botanists and the author of the best books we have upon various departments of that science...in 1829...he was appointed Professor of Botany at University College, London. At this period the Linnean system was almost universally followed by English botanists. It is one of the chief merits of Dr. Lindley that he early saw the necessity of superseding the artificial by the natural classification of plants. In an essay on this subject, contained in his "Introduction to the Natural System of Botany," published in 1830, he showed very clearly what the advantages of this system were, and thus paved the way for its general adoption in England...his great work, "The Vegetable Kingdom,"...the most elaborate that had appeared on systematic botany, gave a description of all the families of plants, and more especially of those useful to man. It gave very extended lists of the genera, and was generally recognised as one of the most important contributions which had at that time appeared on systematic botany'. From "Illustrated London News", 1865.