Heirloom references from 1884-1889 Gardening book available

19 years ago

My mother rescued four books from an Agricultural library book sale titled "The Illustrated Dictionary of Gardening - An Encyclopeadia of Horticulture for Gardeners and Botanists" edited by George Nicholson. They were published from 1884 to 1889. She recently gave me the set and I've noticed that the vegetable sections list the "sorts" popular at the time. Sometimes the varieties have a lot of detail included, sometimes just the names are listed. Would anyone be interested in this information? If you are looking for the history of a specific vegetable, I might be able to help. I have a scanner and could copy some pages.

Bellatrix

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Comments (2)

fran_always
19 years ago
Your are lucky! I am studying the history of vegetables and these books are a gold mine. Did you know that this book is actually in 8 volumes? Maybe that's why the library disposed of them. Or else your mother missed the other 4...

Here is a link that might be useful: Timeline of the history of botany
bella_trix
Original Author
19 years ago
Wow, that time line is great!

I absolutely love these books. The illustrations are beautiful and the descriptions wonderful. I love how earwigs are referred to as "the enemy". Too funny. I would so like to find the Nutmeg gourd of Marseilles or the Orange squash/gourd, but I'm guessing they are probably extinct. It makes me sad.

Were the books maybe published in both a four and eight volume set? I know they were first published as a monthly series. Mine is arranged alphabetically and I have the full alphabet plus supplement. Does yours have more? If so, what else does it cover? If there's more, I may have to go on a quest to find it!

Bellatrix
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