On the cultivation of the plants belonging to the natu- ral order of Proteeae, with their generic as well as specific characters and places where they grow wild. A rare historically important work dealing with the horticulture and classification of mainly Cape and Australasian Proteaceae. With an introduction by Dr. J.P.Rourke. 1809. (Facsimile Repr. 1987). 4 full col. pls. 180 p. Lex8vo. Cloth.

This rarepublication occupies a key position in the historic literature of the Protea family and deals with both the horticulture and classification of these splendid plants. Published under the nominal authorship of Joseph Knight, gardener to George Hibbert of London, owner of the finest living collection of Cape and Australasian Proteaceae in Europe during the late 18th and early 19th centuries, this important work was almost certainly written by R.A.Salisbury to antagonise his rival Robert Brownw hose classic paper "On the Proteaceae of Jussieu" (1810) it antedated by a few months. Knight's book appeared at a time when colonial expansion in the British Empire had stimulated tremendous interest inthe botanical exploration of newly acquired territories. Its publication climaxed a feud between the British botanists R.A.Salisbury and Robert Brown, both of whom had developed a serious research interest in the classification of the Protea family.

The 128 page treatise is divided into two sections. The first documents the cultural methods which enabled these remarkable plants to be grown under glass in Europe nearly 200 years go. The remainder consists of a systematic account of 256 mainly Cape and Australasian species, in 36 genera.

An introduction by Dr.J.P.Rourke, Head of the Compton Herbarium, Kirstenbosch, and well-known researcher on the taxonomy of Cape Proteaceae, discusses some historical aspects of this book, the circumstances under which it was written, its nomenclatural significance and the rivalry between R.A. Salisbury and Robert Brown. The introduction is illustrated by three magnificent hitherto unpublished colour plates by Franz Andreas Bauer (1758-1840) depicting proteas grown at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, in the late 18th century.