Title: A Family Herbal: Or a Familiar Account of the Medical Properties of British and Foreign Plants, Also Their Uses in Dying, and the Various Arts, Arranged According to the Linnaean System, and Illustrated by Two Hundred and Fifty-Eight Engravings from Plants Drawn from Nature Henderson, and Engraved by Bewick of Newcastle
Author: Robert John Thornton - Robert John Thornton was an English physician and botanical writer, noted for "A New Illustration of the Sexual System of Carolus Von Linnæus" (1797-1807) and "The British Flora" of 1812.

He was the son of Bonnell Thornton and studied at Trinity College, Cambridge. Inspired by Thomas Martyn's lectures on botany and the work of Linnaeus he switched from the church to medicine. He worked at Guy's Hospital in London, where he later lectured in medical botany. After spending some time abroad, he settled and practised in London. Robert inherited the family fortune after the death of both his brother and mother.

Thornton died in destitution.


The most ambitious part of the "New Illustration of the Sexual System of Linnæus" was Part III, the "Temple of Flora" (1799-1807). The first plates were engraved by Thomas Medland in May 1798, from paintings by Philip Reinagle. Between 1798 and 1807, they produced a total of thirty-three coloured plates, engraved in aquatint, stipple and line. When he planned the project, Thornton had decided to publish seventy folio-size plates. Lack of interest from the general public spelled disaster for the scheme, and the holding of a lottery could not save it from financial ruin, neither did a page in the work dedicated to the spouse of George III, Queen Charlotte, patroness of botany and the fine arts.
The standard author abbreviation Thornton is used to indicate this individual as the author when citing a botanical name. (Information courtesy of Wikipedia)
Publisher: Printed for B. and R. Crosby and Co.
City: London
Year: 1814
Printing Information: Second Edition
Binding Style: Hardcover
Pagination: xxviii/901 pages
Width: 6" Height: 9.25"
Book Details:
Condition / Notes: This is the preferred expanded second edition, with over 250 woodcuts engraved by celebrated English engraver Thomas Bewick (1753-1828).

This antique volume's front board is detached, and the leather spine is detaching on the upper half. The spine has a gilt-lettered spine label. The text block is intact. The pages exhibit occasional light foxing. This work has a general index.

Nissen 1954; Stafleu and Cowan 14.286

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