English Botany; or, Coloured Figures of British Plants, with their essential characters, synonyms, and places of growth. To which will be added, occasional remarks. [With:] General Indexes to the Thirty-Six Volumes of English Botany; to which is added, an alphabetical index to English Fungi; making together, a catalogue of indigenous British plants. [And:] Supplement to the English Botany… vol. 1.

Notes

A lovely example of James Sowerby's (1757-1822) English Botany, which he claimed to be 'a perfect National Flora, a work that has been attempted in several countries, but, which is very remarkable, has not proceeded nearly to completion in any other'. When first embarking upon the project, Sowerby's collaborator James Edward Smith (1759-1828) refused to have his name attached, fearing the work would not befit his status as founder and president of the Linnean Society. After the popularity of the first volumes, however, he changed his mind, partly out of frustration that people would quote Sowerby when referring to his botanical descriptions. Compiled and issued as a periodical over nearly 25 years, this was a mammoth undertaking, with both Sowerby and Smith constantly in correspondence with fellow botanists and avid plant collectors to discuss variations or new locations of specimens. Sowerby did both the initial drawings and the engravings for each of the 2,592 plates. The attention to detail is astounding, particularly in the vast variety of mosses and lichens recorded, which are often overlooked by modern gardeners, as well as the striking and colourful species of seaweed.
After Sowerby's death, two of his sons produced a pair of supplement volumes in the same format to cover species newly discovered; the first volume is present here, taking the full list up to 2,692 plates. Some sets also have a separate work on English Fungi, which Sowerby published in 3 volumes from 1797 to 1803, but this is not strictly called for (though the later general index does reference it) and is not in this uniformly bound set.