Bicknell was a passionate botanist; he devoted himself to the study of the local flora and the Maritime Alps in general. His research was published in two books which became a point of reference for scholars in the field: Flowering plants and ferns of the Riviera (1885) and Flora of Bordighera and San Remo or a catalogue of the wild plants growing in western Liguria in the area bounded by the outer watersheds of the Arma and Nervia torrents (1896).