3 Free eBooks - March 2014

It’s time again for the monthly post about eBooks that are freely available on the Internet. The three below are my favorites for March 2014: birds, insects and flowers. I am anticipating spring!

Gould, John. The Birds of Europe. London: R. and J.E. Taylor. 1837. Five volumes are available on the Internet Archive: volume 1, volume 2, volume 3, volume 4, and volume 5. A few years ago I saw an exhibit of John Gould’s bird prints (large books) in a museum in Tennessee….and made a note to check the Internet Archive for any scanned versions of his work since the exhibit only displayed a small portion of the volumes. It was such a pleasure to finally browsing through these books online.

Fabre, Jean-Henri; Stawell, Rodolph, Mrs; Teixeira de Mattos, Alexander; Detmold, Edward Julius. Fabre's Book of Insects. New York: Dodd, Mead and Company. 1926. Available on the Internet Archive here. The illustrations by Detmold are the draw for this book.

Galeotti, Henri); Funck, Nicolas; Morren, Edouard. L'Horticulteur practicien; revue de l'horticulture franaise et trangre. Paris: A. Goin. 1858. Two volumes are available on the Internet Archive: 1857 and 1858. The illustrations of rich with color and detail of flowers….it’s like touring a conservatory online. I picked the forsythia illustration because it reminded me of how disappointed I that our neighbor’s forsythia is likely to have a hard time this year since the deer have eaten all the tender parts. It might not manage any blooms at all!