Catalogue of Economic Plants in the Collection of the U. S. Department of

Saunders, William, 1822-1900Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 2.8
Word count
180K words
Chapters
18

Tags

English Originals Agriculture Forestry Livestock Natural HistoryPlant CatalogueScientific RecordEconomic BotanyAmerican AgricultureIllustrated GuideAcademic StudyPractical Guide19th Century

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Catalogue of Economic Plants in the Collection of the U. S. Department ofAuthor: Saunders, William, 1822-1900,Language: English, Class: SB: Agriculture: Plant culture, Release Date: Jan 22, 2008

Editor's review

Compiled by William Saunders, this catalogue of the U. S. Department of Agriculture's collection of economic plants is a product of nineteenth-century botany and agricultural documentation, now available as a free ebook from Project Gutenberg. Its value lies not in narrative but in reference: it records the names and collection information of economic plants in catalogue form, offering a view of plant classification, agricultural resource surveys, and institutional collections of the period. Readers should not expect continuous exposition but should use it as a reference work or historical source. For those interested in botany, agricultural history, the history of science, and the curation of public-domain texts, it provides direct access to primary material. Because it is a catalogue, information density is high but the reading experience leans toward consultation rather than reading; approach it with specific questions or use it as background alongside related research.

Who it's for

A good fit for

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Reading tips

  1. Begin with the preface or introductory text to understand the catalogue's arrangement and scope.
  2. Search by specific plant name or category rather than reading from cover to cover.
  3. Keep a modern botanical dictionary at hand and note differences between historical and current names.
  4. Read alongside contemporary agricultural survey reports to understand the institutional collecting context behind the catalogue.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

Contents

  1. 1
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FAQ

Is this catalogue suitable for reading from cover to cover? Not really. It is organized as a catalogue, with information arranged by entry, so it is better suited to lookup by name or category; reading it straight through can cause you to lose focus.
Can I read it without a background in botany? You can browse it, but understanding the scientific names and classification information in the entries requires some foundation; it is best used alongside a botanical dictionary or modern taxonomic references.
How is it different from an ordinary plant illustrated guide? It focuses on collection records and lists of economic plants rather than image-based identification or cultivation guidance, functioning more as a reference index than an illustrated guide.
Can the Project Gutenberg version be used for research citations? It can serve as a source for reading and preliminary reference of the public-domain text, but for formal citation you should still verify the original publication information and edition, and note possible differences introduced by text transcription.

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

Saunders, William, 1822-1900 Author · Canadian · 1822–1900

Saunders, William (1822–1900), was a Canadian agricultural scientist and entomologist who served as the first director of the federal experimental farms in Canada. He devoted sustained attention to agricultural practice and insect research, and his work reflects Canada's exploration of applied science in the nineteenth century. The library holds one work by him, Catalogue of Economic Plants in the Collection of the U. S. Department of, a catalogue of economic plants that serves as a reference of documentary value. Because public information is limited, details of his life, academic lineage, and specific influence are difficult to elaborate; nonetheless, the surviving work shows his emphasis on the systematic recording and classification of plant resources, providing basic materials for consultation in related fields. Overall, Saunders's writings reflect a pragmatic orientation at the intersection of agricultural science and botany.