Elizabeth Kent (writer)

Elizabeth "Bess" Kent (1790–1861) was an English botanical and horticultural writer, noteworthy as a member of the Cockney School. Her best known work, Flora Domestica (1823), quoted extensively from John Keats and Leigh Hunt, who was her brother-in-law. Quotes All Europe, and the temperate parts of the vast Russian empire, abound with Heath. The Calluna Common Heath, which is little regarded in warmer climates, is used for a variety of purposes in the bleak and barren Scottish Highlands Highlands of Scotland, and in other northern countries. ... In the Outer Hebrides Western Isles it affords a dye. Woolen cloth boiled in alum water, and afterwards in a strong decoction made from the green tops and flowers of this plant, becomes of a beautiful orange-colour. Brettius relates, that a kind of ale brewed from these young tops was much used by the Picts: and it is said to be still an ingredient in the beer in some of the Western Isles. In many parts of Great Britain besoms are made of this Heath; and it is an excellent fuel. The flowers are either a kind of rose-colour slightly tinged with purple, or they are quite white. Bees collect a great quantity of honey from them. Flora Domestica, Or, The Portable Flower-garden: With Directions for the Treatment of Plants in Pots and Illustrations from the Works of the Poets ... Whittaker, Treacher 1831 https://books.google.com/books?id=2MNBAAAAIAAJ&q=russian+empire 198–199 (464 pages; 1st edition published anonymously in 1823) Sylvan Sketches (1825) The Rhamnus alaternus Alaternus is an evergreen shrub, with fine glossy leaves: the honey-breathing blossoms, as Evelyn terms them, come out in May; they are numerous, but very small, and are very grateful to bees.It is a native of Europe and Barbary Coast Barbary, and was introduced into this country in 1629. Sylvan Sketches; Or .... the Park and the Shrubbery Taylor and Hessey 1825 https://books.google.com/books?id=3h4oAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA7 7 (408 pages) Birch#Uses Birch-wood is thought to make the best charcoal, and its soot is a good lamp-black for printers' ink. The leaves are good fodder for horses, kine, sheep, and goats; and the seeds are the favourite food of the Eurasian siskin Siskin, or Averdevine. pp. 48–49 ... queen Elizabeth ... is said to have planted an Elm with her own hand at Kensington Chelsea Chelsea, where her father had a palace, in which she was brought up when an infant. It went always by her name, and I remember it a stately flourishing tree, except that the top was decayed. It stood at the upper end of Old Church Street Church-lane, near where the turnpike now is, and was boundary of the parish on the north side. It was felled, to the great regret of the neighbourhood, on the 11th of November 1745, and sold for a Guinea (coin) guinea, by Hans Sloane Sir Hans Sloane, Bart. lord of the manor. p. 130 The Quercus petraea Italian Oak has been named Esculus, from the esculent quality of the acorns, which, in times of scarcity, are frequently eaten by the poor in the south of France, ground, and made into bread: some eat them fresh like nuts; they are sweet, and very different from our Quercus robur#Uses English acorns.This Oak was cultivated by Philip Miller Mr. Miller in 1739. p. 275 John Martyn (botanist) Martyn says that the gum-resin, called Olibanum, is supposed to be the incense formerly used by the ancients in their religious ceremonies, though not the substance known by that name in shops. It is much employed by the Roman Catholics in their chapels, for similar uses: when burned, it diffuses a very fragrant smell. This olibanum, or true frankincense, has been supposed to be the produce of the Juniperus phoenicea Lycian Juniper, but that plant does not afford any resin. The olibanum now sold in the shops is the produce of the Boswellia serrata Boswellia serrata, or Salai tree of India. pp. 197–198 The Salix babylonica Weeping Willow is most appropriately named, for, in addition to the pensive drooping appearance of its branches, it is common to see little drops of water, which stand like fallen tears upon the leaves. The willow will grow in any but a dry soil, but most delights and best thrives in the immediate neighbourhood of water. p. 389 Quotes about Elizabeth Kent Bess Kent is an enigmatic figure. We know she wrote voluminous letters, in which she laid her heart bare, but few have survived. We know that she wrote at least three books — two about flowers and trees and one for children, and that she planned to write another — but we know little about how she conducted her research, or how long these books took her to write. In the late 1810s and early 1820s she attempted to wean herself off opium, but there is little to indicate when she first developed this addiction. She made at least one suicide attempt and threatened to make others, but the circumstances surrounding them are a matter of conjecture. Daisy Hay, Young Romantics: The Shelleys, Byron, and Other Tangled Lives Macmillan + ORM 2024 9781429946087 https://books.google.com/books?id=cMeoLcFMb7YC&pg=PA16 16 (372 pages; 1st edition 2010) External links Category:1790 births Category:1861 deaths Category:Children's authors Category:Non-fiction authors from England Category:Women authors from England Category:Women born before the 19th century