Nikolaus Joseph Jacquin (1727–1817). Selectarum Stirpium Americanarum historia. . . [History of selected American plants. . . ]. Vienna: 1780. Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress (163)
Caribbean Plant Specimens
Nikolaus Jacquin was an important eighteenth-century botanist whose work helped to spread the ideas of Carl von Linn (Linnaeus). Linnaeus had developed a coherent classification system for plants based on the structure of the reproductive organs of flowers. Jacquin was sent by the Emperor of Austria to the Caribbean to collect plant specimens. During a four-year period (1755–1759), he sent back seven shipments of plants and animals to Vienna. The 1780 edition of this work contains 264 sumptuous hand-painted engravings and a title page drawn by Franz and Ferdinand Bauer.