Bibliographic Detail
Stackhouse, J., 1795
Reference:
Stackhouse, J. (1795). Nereis britannica; continens species omnes fucorum in insulis britannicis crescentium: descriptione latine et anglico, necnon iconibus ad vivum depictis... Fasc. 1. pp. i-viii, 1-30, pls I-VIII. Bathoniae [Bath] & Londini [London]: S. Hazard; J. White.
Location:
Bathoniae [Bath] & Londini [London]
Notes:
Bath: S. Hazard, 1795-1801. Folio. pp. xl, 112, 7, with 2 title-vignettes and 17 handcoloured or colour-printed engraved plates and 7 watercolour drawings. Copies are rarely complete with the Appendix and the 7 watercolour drawings. The coloured drawings were only issued to subscribers on request.
Stackhouse (1742-1819), a Cornish botanist, devoted himself to the study of seaweeds and of the plants mentioned by Theophrastus. About 1775 he erected Acton Castle at Perranuthnoe for the purpose of pursuing his researches in marine algae.
Nereis Britannica, which was issued in parts, deals mainly with the seawracks or fuci, and was based on his own researches, together with those of his friends, Thomas Jenkinson Woodward, Dawson Turner, Dr. Samuel Goodenough, Lilly Wigg, John Pitchford, and Colonel Thomas Velley, and the herbaria of Dillenius, Bobart, and Linnaeus. The work is considered important in the history of botany as in it, Stackhouse breaks away from the Linnaean nomenclature generally accepted by algologists. Nissen BBI, 1885; Pritzel 8888; Stafleu 12,728; Henrey II, pp 159-161. A footnote on page xxv states: "For the accomodation of those who may wish to have delineated Specimens of the whole Genus in one work, I shall leave Drawings with a Lady who has coloured the plates for this work, of all the species enumerated in the Appendix, and sets to bind up with the work will be ready to be delivered on application to the Publisher" deals entirely with common seaweeds found on the shores of Great Britain. It is an important book in the history of botany, for, until that time, algologists generally accepted Linnaean nomenclature. Stackhouse, however, was the first to break away from this custom" (Henrey II, p. 159).
