This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it.

George Clayton Anderson (1808-77) was only twenty-three when he set out from Newcastle in 1831 with his brother, Dick, and the professional artist William Train to explore the Western isles and remote St Kilda.

The book promotes the purity of natural law as superior to social customs and institutions, and reflects many concerns of the intelligentsia of the time, amongst whom it stirred up much controversy.

George Francis Atkinson wrote the definitive introduction to botany in 1905. The Cornell professor provides an often used introduction to the topic. Today it serves as a fascinating document on the state of the discipline at the time.