New family herbal : or popular account of the natures and properties of the various plants used in medicine, diet and the arts

As a young child, Robert Thornton kept his own garden. So enamored was he of the subject, that even as he was struggling with the publication his great Temple of Flora, and losing the family fortune while doing so, he continued to study and write about the plants he loved. This comparatively modest work was illustrated by drawings engraved on wood by Thomas Bewick, considered one of the finest and most innovative wood engravers of the nineteenth century.