Lowson_Front_Cover

Lowson, J. M. (1959)
Revised Howarth, W. O. and Warne, L. G. G.
Textbook of Botany

Twelfth edition
University Tutorial Press


I believe this was the main textbook for A-level Botany during the years 1962 to 1964 when I took my A-level Botany. Dai cube used to dictate lessons and draw diagrams on the blackboard while referring to various pages of the book, and we wrote it all down.

The book shows the kind of ‘classical’ botany we learned which was mainly plant anatomy and  morphology, and detailed descriptions of the families with floral formulae and floral diagrams, many of which we were expected to learn. There were also extensive sections on the morphology and anatomy of the ferns, mosses, and lower plants. The book has relatively little on physiology and biochemistry. The illustrations of plant anatomy are particularly nice consisting of hand-drawn and hand-labelled figures of a sort that you would think you could do yourself!

Click on the links in the text to see some sample pages.

In addition click here to see some pages from Alwyn Griffiths’ Biology lab workbook dating from the early 1960s which includes his hand-drawn pictures of some of the features mentioned above.