IV. INTRODUCED AND NATURALIZED.
The Common Pheasant (Phasianus colchicus), iii., 169.
In “Preserves.”
CHAPTER XIX.
NATURAL HISTORY IN THE LIBRARY.
As he who southward sails, beholds each night,
New constellations rise, all clear and fair;
So, o’er the waters of the world, as we
Reach the mid zone of life, or go beyond,
Beauty and bounty still beset our course;
New beauties wait upon us everywhere,
New lights enlighten, and new worlds attract.
J. P. BAILEY.
THE immense value of the Manchester libraries to the student of Natural History has already been mentioned. Treasure–houses at all times, it is impossible to over–estimate the privileges they confer on rainy days. “Some days,” says the poet, must needs be “dark and dreary.” We have all, at some time or other, had our plans and projects baffled by the wet, and very disappointing it certainly is, when a nice party has been made up for an afternoon’s pleasure in the country, to see the sky grow black and the drops begin to fall, with not a chance of its clearing up until too late to go. But the streets lead the way to as much pleasure, after another manner, as the field–paths. It is nothing but a thoughtless mistake which lauds the country at the expense of the town, crying out that God made the one, but that the other is the work of man. Each is complementary to the other; each, as with the sexes, affords pleasures which itself only can give; each is best in turn, and full of compensation, and whatever may be thought of the adjacent country, no town is more enjoyable to the intelligent, by virtue simply and sufficiently of its Free Libraries, than Manchester. With these inexpressibly precious stores at perfect command, the private property, virtually, of every man who takes interest in their contents, let none, then, ever deplore rain, or piercing winds, mud, snow, sleet, or any species of atmospheric hindrance to rural pleasure. More lies within the walls of our three great Free Libraries than a life–time is sufficient to consume. To the student of wild nature they are peculiarly valuable, since they supply interpretation of everything that can possibly come before him in the fields.
The books in our three great Free Libraries—the Chetham, the City, and the Peel Park—which deal with zoological subjects, and with palæontology, are easily discoverable, the number of important ones, especially such as have plates, being limited. The printed catalogues, and the courtesy of the respective librarians, give ready information as to these, and the titles of the various works generally indicate the contents with sufficient clearness. With works upon botanical matters it is different. The number of these is too vast for any librarian’s easy reference, and to ascertain what ground they cover also very generally requires personal examination. In the aggregate, the three Free Libraries contain quite a thousand distinct and independent works of this latter class—books treating of floriculture as well as of botany—very many of them single volumes, but the average the same as that of the fashionable novel, the grand total being, in other words, over three thousand, a weight of literature pertaining to plants certainly without parallel in any other English city after London. Our remaining space we shall devote accordingly to a select list of the botanical works, old and new, enumerating them in chronological order. For in the eyes of the accomplished student fine old books always count with the great kings of history,
The dead but sceptred sovereigns who still rule
Our spirits from their urns.
Chet. signifies the Chetham; City, the King–street; and P. P., the Peel Park or Salford Library.[32]
A.D.
1532. Brunfels: Herbarum Vivæ eicones. Folio. 130 curious old woodcuts.—Chet.
1542. Fuchsius: De Historia Stirpium. About 450 full–page cuts, many of them admirable, others very droll.—City, Chet.
1576. Lobel: Stirpium Adversaria. Woodcuts.—City, Chet.
1611. Renealm: Specimen Historia Plantarum. Many curious drawings, including one of the sun–flower, then a novelty.—City.
1613. Besler: Hortus Eystettensis. Full of wonderful old plates.—City, Chet.
1635. Cornutus: Canadensium Plantarum. Curious and very interesting old plates.—City.
1678. Breynius: Exoticarum aliarumque minus, &c. 100 fine old and very curious copperplates.—Chet.
1680. Morison: Plantarum Historia. A massive folio, with innumerable exquisite drawings.—City, Chet.
1691–1705. Plukenet: Works. Innumerable figures.—City, Chet.
1693. Charles Plumier: Description des Plantes de l’Amerique. Full of very fine old plates.—City, Chet.
1728. John Martyn: Historia Plantarum Rariorum. 100 fine old coloured plates.—City, Chet.
1748. Weinmann: Duidelyke Vertoning. Four thick folios, containing 1,025 coloured plates, with innumerable figures, old–fashioned, but bold, characteristic, and very curious.—P. P.
1750. Rumphius: Herbarium Amboinense. Six vols., folio. Full of fine old plates.—City, Chet.
1755. C. Plumier: Plantarum Americanarum Fasciculus. Folio. Full of fine old copperplates.—City.
1757–1773. Elizabeth Blackwell: Herbarium. Six vols., folio. Containing 601 coloured plates of economic plants, every one of them drawn and engraved by herself, in order to raise money to liberate her husband from a debtor’s prison.—Chet.
1759–1775. Sir John Hill: The Vegetable System. Twenty–six folio volumes. With 1,600 copperplates, containing 6,560 figures.—City, P. P. (The latter bound in ten vols.)
1760. Philip Miller: Figures of Plants. Two vols., folio., and new edit., in four vols., 1807.—Chet. (An admirable work, with 300 plates.)
1766–1797. G. C. Œder: Flora Danica. Eleven vols., folio, with 1,200 plates.—City.
1770. John Edwards: Herbal. A thin folio of 100 beautiful coloured plates.—Chet., P. P.
1772. N. J. Jacquin: Hortus Botanicus Vindobonensis. Two vols., folio. Full of the most beautiful coloured plates.—Chet.
1773. N. J. Jacquin: Flora Austriaca. Five vols., folio. Full of splendid coloured plates.—City.
1775. Aublet: Histoire des Plantes de la Guiane Française. Four vols., 4to. Two of them made up of very beautiful and interesting plates.—City, Chet.
1777. John Miller: The Sexual System of Linnæus. A massive elephant folio, with 103 magnificent coloured plates.—Chet., City.
1777. Curtis: Flora Londinensis. Folio. Several vols. The finest coloured plates of British wild–flowers ever given to the world.—Chet., City. (See 1828 for continuation.)
1781–1786. N. J. Jacquin: Icones Plantarum Rariorum. Contains 200 splendid coloured plates. Three vols.—Chet.; vol. i., City.
1784. Pallas: Flora Rossica. Folio. Full of beautiful coloured plates.—City.
1784. L’Heritier: Stirpes Novæ, &c. Folio. Full of fine plates.—City.
1787. Curtis: The renowned “Botanical Magazine” was commenced this year. No Manchester library contains the whole. The following are the localities of all the town possesses, including a portion in the “Royal Exchange”:—1787–1842, vols. 1 to 68, City; 1843–1859, vols. 69 to 85, Royal Exchange; 1860–1869, vols. 86 to 95, nowhere; 1870–1882, vols. 96 onwards to present time, City.
1790–1814. Smith and Sowerby’s “English Botany.” Thirty–six vols., 8vo. 2,592 coloured plates.—City, P. P.
1800. Desfontaines. Flora Atlantica. Four vols., 4to. Contains 261 fine old plates.—City.
1816. W. J. Hooker: The British Jungermannias. 4to. Full of exquisite coloured plates.—City.
1818–1833. Loddiges: The Botanical Cabinet. Contains 2,000 coloured plates.—P. P.
1823. Alex. Humboldt: Melastomaceæ. 64 very fine coloured plates.—P. P.
1823–1827. W. J. Hooker: Exotic Flora. Three vols., 8vo. 232 beautiful coloured plates.—City.
1827. W. J. Hooker and T. Taylor: Muscologia Britannica. Exquisitely illustrated.—City.
1828. Curtis’s Flora Londinensis. Continued by W. J. Hooker. Two vols., folio. Most beautiful plates.—City.
1828. Wm. Roscoe: Monandrian Plants. Atlas folio. Contains 112 splendid coloured plates.—Chet.
1829. W. J. Hooker and Greville: Icones Filicum. Two vols., folio. Full of splendid plates.—City.
1830–1832. N. Wallich: Plantæ Asiaticæ Rariores. Three vols., huge folio, containing 295 superb coloured plates.—City, Chet.
1834–1843.—Baxter: British Flowering–plants. Six vols., 8vo. Full of beautiful coloured plates.—City.
1837. Jas. Bateman: The Orchidaceæ of Mexico and Guatemala. Folio. 40 superb coloured plates.—Chet.
1838. Endlicher: Nova Genera (of South American plants). Folio. Full of fine plates.—City.
1838. J. C. Loudon: Arboretum Britannicum. Eight vols. Over 400 plates and 2,500 woodcuts.—P. P.
1838. John Lindley: Sertum Orchidaceum. A wreath of the most beautiful orchidaceous flowers. Splendid coloured plates.—Chet.
1839. J. F. Royle: Illustrations of the Botany of the Himalayan Mountains and of the Flora of Cashmere. Two vols., folio. 90 beautiful coloured plates.—City.
1840–1853. R. Wight: Icones Plantarum Indiæ Orientalis. Six vols., 4to.—City.
1843. John Torrey: The Flora of the State of New York. Two vols., 4to. Beautiful coloured plates.—City, P. P.
1846–1851. W. H. Harvey: Phycologia Britannica. (Sea–weeds.) Four vols., 8vo. 360 beautiful coloured plates.—City.
1847. Mrs. Hussey: Illustrations of British Mycology. (Fungi.) 4to.—City.
1847. J. D. Hooker: Botany of the Antarctic Voyage of the Erebus and Terror. Two vols., 4to. 198 fine coloured plates.—City.
1847. C. D. Badham: The Esculent Funguses of England. 8vo. 20 coloured plates.—P. P.
1852–1857. B. Seeman: Botany of the Voyage of H.M.S. Herald.—City.
1854. Sir W. J. Hooker: Century of Ferns. 4to. 100 plates.—P. P.
1855. Wm. Wilson: Bryologia Britannica. 8vo.—City.
1857. Mudd: Photographs of trees destroyed by fumes from chemical works. Folio.—P. P.
1857. Henry Smith: Indian Flowering–plants and Ferns. A large folio of about 100 beautiful nature–prints.—P. P.
1858. E. J. Lowe: Natural History of British Grasses. 74 coloured plates.—City.
1859–1860. Johnstone and Croall: Nature–printed British Sea–weeds.—City, P. P.
1859. Thos. Moore: Nature–printed Ferns. Two vols., 8vo.—City, P. P.
1860. M. J. Berkeley: Outlines of British Fungology. 8vo. 24 coloured plates, with innumerable figures.—City, P. P.
1861. E. J. Lowe: Beautiful–leaved Plants. 60 coloured plates.—P. P.
1861. E. J. Lowe: Ferns, British and Exotic. Eight vols., 8vo. 479 coloured plates.—City, P. P.
1862. E. J. Lowe: New and Rare Ferns. 8vo. 72 coloured plates.—City, P. P.
1863. C. P. Johnson: Useful Plants of Great Britain. 8vo. 25 plates, containing figures of 300 species.—P. P.
1863–1872. English Botany. Edited by J. T. Boswell Syme. Eleven vols., large 8vo. Over 2,000 coloured plates.—City.
1864. Blume: Remarkable Orchids of India and Japan. Folio. Fine coloured plates.—City.
1865. R. Warner and B. S. Williams: Select Orchidaceous Plants. Folio. Fine plates.—City.
1865. E. J. Lowe: Our Native Ferns. Two vols., 8vo. 79 coloured plates and 909 woodcuts.—City.
1868. L. E. Tripp: British Mosses. Two vols., 4to. Coloured figures of every known species.—City, P. P.
1872. Horatio C. Wood: North American Fresh–water Algæ. 4to. 21 plates filled with exquisite coloured figures.—P. P.
1872. Flore Forestiére, &c. Folio. 18 splendid coloured plates, representing about 120 of the most interesting trees and shrubs of central Europe.—P. P.
1872–1874. D. Wooster: Alpine Plants. Two vols., 8vo. 108 coloured plates.—City.
1873. Le Maout and Decaisne: General System of Botany. Translated by Mrs. Hooker. 5,500 woodcuts.—City.
1875. Sachs: Text–book of Botany. A massive 8vo., with innumerable woodcuts.—City.
1877. F. G. Heath: The Fern World. 12 coloured plates.—City.
1878. F. G. Heath: Our Woodland Trees. Contains excellent coloured drawings of their leaves.—City.
In addition to the thousand botanical works contained in the three great Free Libraries, there are many of considerable value, which they do not possess, in the Portico, the Athenæum, the “Royal Exchange,” the Owens College, and other collections not open to the general public. The following are the most important of the illustrated volumes. The aggregate of all kinds in the subscription libraries is about four hundred volumes.
A.D.
1834. Stephenson and Churchill: Medical Botany. Three vols., 8vo.—Owens.
1834–1849. Paxton’s Magazine of Botany and Gardening. Sixteen vols. Nearly 600 fine coloured plates.—Royal Exchange.
1838–1847. John Lindley: Botanical Register. New series. Ten vols., 8vo. 688 fine coloured plates.—Portico.
1841. Mrs. Loudon: Ornamental Bulbous Plants. 4to.—Royal Exchange.
1843–1844. Mrs. Loudon: Ornamental Perennials. Two vols., 4to.—Royal Exchange.
1845. A. H. Hassall: British Fresh–water Algæ. Two vols., 8vo. 100 plates.—Owens.
1848. John Ralfs: The British Desmidiaceæ. 8vo.—Owens.
1850. Wm. Griffiths: Palms of British East India. Large folio. 133 plates.—Owens.
1851–1853. Lindley and Paxton: The Flower Garden. Three vols., 4to. 108 admirable plates and 314 woodcuts.—Royal Exchange.
SUMMARY
OF
RAILWAY STATIONS AND DISTANCES.
The figures after the names of the respective places denote the number of miles they are distant from the Manchester Station of departure previously mentioned.