Henry De la Beche (1796–1855) was a geologist who published widely on various aspects of this science and was elected to the Royal Society in 1823. He was involved with the Ordnance Survey maps of Britain, and became president of the Geological Society in 1847. De la Beche was also instrumental in the 1851 opening of two influential institutions: the Museum of Practical Geology and the School…
An international team of over forty stratigraphic experts have helped to build the most up-to-date international stratigraphic framework for the Precambrian and Phanerozoic. This successor to A Geologic Time Scale 1989 by W. Brian Harland et al. (CUP 0521 387655) begins with an introduction to the theory and methodology behind the construction of the new time scale. The main part of the book is…
The explorer and multi-disciplinary scientist Alexander von Humboldt (1769–1859) was a prominent figure in the European scientific community of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and the first to make a scientific survey of South and Central America. His travels alone brought him widespread recognition, but the extensive field notes and research he undertook were developed further on his…
Carl Linnaeus (1707–88), father of modern taxonomy, was one of the most important scientists of the eighteenth century. This biography was written by Richard Pulteney (1730–1801), a physician and botanist who greatly admired Linnaeus' methods and aimed to promote them in England. The first edition was published in 1781 and contains a thorough account of the major works of Linnaeus and his u…
Thomas Bewick (1753–1828) began his career as an apprentice to the engraver and businessman Ralph Beilby (1743–1817). Having entered into a partnership and illustrated more than eighty small books for children, they decided to work together on this natural history, with Beilby drafting the descriptions and Bewick providing wood engravings and textual revisions. It was first published in 179…
Eleanor Vere Boyle (1825–1916), who re-created the gardens of Huntercombe Manor in Berkshire in the 1870s, was a talented artist as well as an author, illustrating both poetry and books for children. Coming from an aristocratic family, and in later life a friend of Queen Alexandra, she produced sketches and watercolours admired by Ruskin and Landseer, and Tennyson and Bulwer Lytton contribute…
This book addresses an important problem in ecology: how are communities assembled from species pools? This pressing question underlies a broad array of practical problems in ecology and environmental science, including restoration of damaged landscapes, management of protected areas, and protection of threatened species. This book presents a simple logical structure for ecological assembly and…
This reference provides comprehensive information on the taxonomy and distribution in time and space of all currently recognized southern African fossil mammals. After an introductory background chapter on southern Africa, mammals, sites and dating, the following chapters are presented by epoch, covering the Eocene, Miocene, Pliocene, Pleistocene and Holocene. Individual maps provide informatio…
This flora, published in 1964, was the first comprehensive account of Cambridgeshire's plants since Babington's of 1860. Based on records to the end of 1962, it details 1509 species. These comprise 27 pteridophytes, 3 gymnosperms, 1223 angiosperms and 256 bryophytes. The following information is provided for each of the species: scientific name; well-known vernacular name, if any; first known r…
This book discusses the political and economic history and geography of Georgia, the problems it has faced, and how it has overcome and is still overcoming them. In most countries, at the end of the 20th century the successful resolution of social-economic, political, demographic and ecological problems was largely dependent on effectively protecting the population and economic assets from natu…