Charlecote Park From the Library Paxton's Magazine of Botany, and Register of Flowering Plants This was published from 1834-1839 in 12-monthly parts gathered into 16 volumes . Published by Orr & Smith (Vols 1&2)/W.S. Orr & Co., London As with many such magazines the early volumes are more common than the later ones. Charlecote hold the first 15 volumes The Magazine of Botany was published by Joseph Paxton in 16 volumes from 1834-1849. The hand coloured plates are from copper engravings. v. 1 (1834) - v. 2 (1836) - v. 3 (1837) - v. 4 (1838) - v. 5 (1838) - v. 6 (1839) - v. 7 (1840) - v. 8 (1841) - v. 9 (1842) - v.10 (1843) - v.11 (1844)- v.12(1846) - v.13(1847) - v.14 (1848)- v.15 (1849)- v.16 (1849) Paxton's introduction to the first volume Inscription from the frontispiece Sir Joseph Paxton (3 August 1803 ? 8 June 1865) was an English gardener and architect, best known for designing The Crystal Palace. Fire (video) follow the link for more about Paxton At the age of only 20 he became Head Gardener at Chatsworth, Home of William Cavendish, Sixth Duke of Devonshire. He set about re-designing the gardens and became skilled at moving mature trees, the largest weighing eight tons. In 1826 he obtained a cutting of a large water lily that produced leaves 12 foot wide and strong enough to support his daughter on one leaf. By studying the structure of this leaf, which consisted of radiating ribs with cross links he was inspired to design greenhouses using prefabricated modular structures that culminated in the design of the Crystal Palace using a similar structure, built for the Great exhibition of 1851, for which he was knighted. His design, originally on a bit of blotting paper, only took him nine days to complete. The building itself was erected in just six months, with 293,655 panes of glass, 330 huge iron columns and 24 miles of gutters. The earlier repeal of the Victorian glass tax in 1838 had led to the price of glass dropping by 80% ! He became Liberal Member of Parliament for Coventry in 1854 and became involved in Urban planning. He laid out the London Road Cemetery in Coventry. The Magazine of Botany and Register of Flowering Plants is famous for the richness of the hand-colored engravings and lithographs which are supreme examples of Victorian botanical illustration. As newly discovered botanical specimens were brought to Europe for cultivation, Paxton included these in his monthly magazine. They were drawn and engraved by F.W. Smith and lithographed by S. Holden . In total there were over 700 plates as well as numerous wood engraved illustrations. Lilium_monadelphum Nepenthes distillatoria Sample images (29) from Wikimedia http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Paxton's_Magazine_of_Botany Sample images from the San Francisco? Public Library http://sfpl.org/index.php?pg=2000114901 Sample images from The University of Kent http://www.kent.ac.uk/library/specialcollections/item-images/pdf/P001400.pdf (Use the down arrow to bring up new images) Len Mullenger is a Sunday volunteer guide. Any comments are welcome and can be sent to len@musicweb-international.com Return to Index page