This adds to the Library's collection of material by the Dundonian Alexander Beatson (1759-1830) relating to Saint Helena. Beatson was an army officer; he had served in India and from 1808 to1813 he was governor of St .Helena. The island, which belonged to the East India Company, was in a very poor state. The population had nearly been wiped out by a measles epidemic and the c. 3000 survivors, a mixture of English settlers, Africans and Chinese coolies, were living in wretched conditions. During this time Beatson established a printing press on the island. This item is one of four works he had published. The others dealt mainly with the agriculture on the island. In recognition of his achievements on the island, Beatson was promoted to the post of major-general in 1813; he returned to England a few months later.

Beatson acknowledges the contribution made towards the work by a Dr. W. Roxburgh, who compiled a catalogue of his own during a year-long stay on the island. The work also includes Roxburgh's 'Directions for taking care of growing plants at sea'. Beatson comments that the island, due to its elevation and to 'having its situation within the Tropics, possesses varieties of climate appropriate to very different plants'. He describes St Helena as being akin to a depot for plants journeying from one region to another. Unfortunately botanical knowledge was in its infancy then, and the arrival of exotic plants from other parts of the world did far more harm than good on an island which today has just over 60 endemic species. Only three copies of this work have been traced in the UK, none of which are in Scotland.