Cartas Sobre Botanica. Estudio Preliminar y Traduccion de Fernando Caldéron Quindos. Revision Terminologica y Notas Cientificas de Maria Carro Jimenez. 2077. 364 p. 8vo. Hardcover. - In Spanish..

In the last third of the 18th century botany was already a science with its own language. The recent acquisition of the binomial nomenclature and its unanimous acceptance by naturalists all over Europe favoured the feeling of identity and of belonging to a scientific community, but the popularity of botany was due to other factors. The taste for horticulture and gardening was not new, nor was the romantic sensibility that would gradually penetrate the hearts of Europeans and give them a taste for the pleasures of the countryside. The recently discovered sexuality of plants was no small matter, and the patronage of numerous naturalistic projects by princes and nobles opened up a horizon of unparalleled expectations for botany. However, what was needed was a man who would put his genius at the service of the people, and Rousseau wrote his Elementary Letters with the aim of turning the study of botany into a ‘path lined with flowers.

Whether the philosopher succeeded matters little. What is important is that the publication of this little work was then, and still is today, a precious example of popularisation at the end of the Age of Enlightenment. Now that nature appears fragile to the hand of man, we should look back at these Letters and read them with the desire to recover our lost sensitivity.