Second edition. John Leonard Knapp (1767-1845) was an English botanist and naturalist, best known for the present book, published anonymously (first appearing in 1829, and running to three editions in his lifetime), and his work on British grasses, Gramina Britannica (1804, resissued 1842). In the Preface Knapp acknowledges the inspiration for this work as White's Natural History of Selborne: 'It early impressed on my mind an ardent love for all the ways and economy of nature, and I was thereby led to the constant observance of the rural objects around me.' Knapp lived at that time in the parish of Alveston, south Gloucestershire, near Bristol. Freeman 2128.