For many years after its first publication in 1690, John Ray’s Synopsis methodica Stirpium Britannicarum was the most consulted book about British plants, the pocket companion of British apothecaries, physicians and country gentlemen on their field excursions. Linnaeus gained most of his knowledge of the British flora from the third edition (1724), revised by Dillenius, here reproduced in facsimile, and he based his dissertation Flora Anglica (1754 and 1759), also reproduced here in...