Makers of British Botany: A Collection of Biographies by Living Botanists

Project GutenbergProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 3.2
Word count
743K words
Chapters
75

Tags

English Originals ScientistsNatural Sciences Nature ObservationPortrait GalleryGroup BiographyCuriosityScientific SpiritAcademic Study

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.Makers of British Botany; a collection of biographies by living botanists by OliverAuthor: ,Language: English, Class: QK: Science: Botany, Release Date: Jul 26, 2014

Editor's review

This is a collection of biographies of British botanists narrated by "living botanists," belonging to the public-domain popular-science and history-of-science resources of the Project Gutenberg free e-book project. Its unique value lies in the biographical perspective: not later recollection but accounts written by contemporaries or firsthand witnesses, thus preserving more inside observations from the academic circle and the atmosphere of the era. For Chinese readers, the book can serve as an introductory window into the development of British botany from the late nineteenth to the early twentieth century, and as further reading for enthusiasts of the history of science and natural history. The English original is relatively plain in language; the reading threshold lies mainly in specialized vocabulary and biographical background rather than literary rhetoric. It is suitable for use by "selective reading plus verification" rather than linear reading from beginning to end. As a product of an e-book project, its layout and annotation style are rather simple; readers should prepare background materials to aid understanding.

Who it's for

A good fit for

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Reading tips

  1. Browse the table of contents first, choosing two or three botanist biographies you know or find interesting for close reading.
  2. While reading, look up birth and death years and main contributions to build a timeline.
  3. Skip specialized terms when encountered; grasp the main thread of the figures' careers and academic interactions.
  4. Proceed at a pace of one or two biographies per week and write brief summaries of each figure afterward.

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
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4
  5. 5
  6. 6
  7. 7
  8. 8
  9. 9
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  11. 11
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  26. 26
  27. 27
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  30. 30
  31. 31
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  33. 33
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  35. 35
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  37. 37
  38. 38
  39. 39
  40. 40
  41. 41
  42. 42
  43. 43
  44. 44
  45. 45
  46. 46
  47. 47
  48. 48
  49. 49
  50. 50
  51. 51
  52. 52
  53. 53
  54. 54
  55. 55
  56. 56
  57. 57
  58. 58
  59. 59
  60. 60
  61. 61
  62. 62
  63. 63
  64. 64
  65. 65
  66. 66
  67. 67
  68. 68
  69. 69
  70. 70
  71. 71
  72. 72
  73. 73
  74. 74
  75. 75

FAQ

Is this book in Chinese or English? According to the materials, the book is in English, released by Project Gutenberg as a public-domain free e-book. Chinese readers need some English reading ability; specialized terms can be understood with the help of reference books or online searches.
Were the biographies written by later generations or by contemporaries? The title states it is a collection of biographies "by living botanists," meaning the narrators were close in time to, or even directly acquainted with, their subjects. This perspective is closer to the actual atmosphere of the academic circle at the time than later recollection, though it may also carry personal stances.
Can I read it without a botany background? Yes, but it is better treated as stories of figures in the history of science rather than a textbook. Focus on the figures' careers, academic interactions, and historical background; do not delve into morphology or taxonomy terms—grasp the overall thread first.

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

Project Gutenberg Author

Project Gutenberg is not a single author but a nonprofit digital library founded by Michael Hart in 1971 and one of the world's earliest free ebook platforms. It relies on volunteers to digitize, proofread, and freely distribute public-domain works and is now operated by the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Its collection contains 2,692 works, mainly religious texts, epics, and story collections, including the King James Bible and the Douay-Rheims volumes, the epic Mahabharata, a literal translation of the Arabian Nights, and Danish editions of the Old and New Testaments. Public information is limited, and its nature is closer to a public-interest compiling and dissemination body; these texts are open to the public, easy to consult and circulate, and have had a profound influence on the spread of ebooks and the preservation of public-domain resources.