LINDLEY, John. Ladies' Botany: or a Familiar Introduction to the Study of the Natural System of Botany, illustrated with numerous wood-cuts. New edition. For the use of schools and young persons. xx,424pp., half-title., 50 fine hand-coloured text illustrations. A very good clean copy bound in original blind and gilt stamped brown cloth, lemon yellow glazed end-papers. Scarce, the first edition thus revised, and recorded in the UK by just one copy on Copac (National Trust), to which FirstSearch adds Kew Gardens. 8vo. Henry G. Bohn. 1841. The horticulturalist John Lindley (1799–1865) worked for Sir Joseph Banks, and was later instrumental in saving the Royal Horticultural Society from financial disaster. The first volume of this two-volume work was published in 1834, and the second in 1837. At a time when botany was regarded as the only science suitable for study by women and girls, Lindley felt that there was a lack of books for 'those who would become acquainted with Botany as an amusement and a relaxation', and attempted to meet this need. Written in the form of engaging letters to a lady, was originally intended to stand alone. Illustrated with detailed botanical drawings, it schools the student in botanical form and taxonomy as well as nomenclature. But despite its title it was never the author's intention to prepare women for serious botanical research, but rather to provide material and illustrations for mothers to teach their "little people". The book belongs firmly in the polite literature of botany, as "an amusement and a relaxation", rather than crossing the threshold into scientific female education. see: Shteir, Ann B. Cultivating Women, Cultivating Science. Johns Hopkins, 1996.