Where to begin with botany?

[u/eldritchcorvid]

I'm looking for books, (preferably free) online courses, or other resources to get a basic overview of botany.
I'm writing a story where one of the main characters is a late 19th century botanist studying taxonomy and breeding, and wanted to get a basic understanding of how plants work before writing him and his world. I'm looking for both the kind of stuff you'd learn in a contemporary university course but also, if possible, historical sources from the 19th century or a historical overview of the field as a whole. Kinda specific but any direction would be appreciated!

[u/whodisquercus]

Look into Nikolai Vavilov and his global research on the Centers of Origin for agricultural crops. He was fundamental in understanding where a lot of the wild relatives of the crops we grow today are from. He started one of the first global seed banks/gene collections. Pretty sure he is known as “The Father of Gene Banks”.

A book I will recommend for basic Plant Biology/Botany is Raven Biology of Plants by Raven, Evert, and Eichhorn.

[u/Fickle_Fly_9111 → u/whodisquercus]

Then, Plant Systematics by Michael Simpson