Letters on the Elements of Botany Addressed to a Lady

Among the many interests of Swiss philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–78) was botany. These letters 'addressed to a lady' came to the attention of Thomas Martyn, professor of botany at the University of Cambridge, who thought that 'if [they were] translated into English, they might be of use to such … as wished to amuse themselves with natural history'. However, when the translation was done, he 'perceived that the foundation only being laid by the ingenious author, it could be of little service, without raising the superstructure'. Martyn's 1785 publication, of which we have reissued the 1791 third edition, adds notes and corrections to Rousseau's original thirty-two letters which explain the structure of plants and their ordering in the Linnaean system. Martyn urges the reader not to study it 'in the easy chair at home': it 'can be no use but to such as have a plant in their hand'.

Translator's preface; Introduction; 1. The true use of botany; 2. Double flowers to be avoided; 3. Botany not to be studied by books; 4. Reason why two stamens are shorter than the other four in cruciform flowers; 5. Glands very small; 6. The umbellate and other natural tribes of plants; 7. Botany a study of curiosity only; 8. The manner how to form a hortus siccus; 9. The skill of a botanist; 10. Genera and species; 11. Explanation of generic and specific characters of plants; 12. The examination of plants; 13. Corn and grasses; 14. Other plants of the third class; 15. The fourth class; 16. The fifth class; 17. Nectary; 18. Hexandria monogynia; 19. Heptandria; 20. The eleventh class; 21. Class Icosandria; 22. Fourteenth class, Didynamia; 23. Fifteenth class, Tetradynamia; 24. Plants to be examined at different seasons; 25. Class seventeenth, Diadelphia; 26. Class Syngenesia; 27. The twentieth class; 28. The twenty-first class; 29. The twenty-second class; 30. The twenty-third class; 31. The different forms and structure of the nectary; 32. The twenty-fourth class; Index of the English names of plants; Index of Latin names; Natural tribes, or orders of plants; Index of terms.