Orchids The Royal Family of Plants, with Illustrations from Nature

folio [36 x 27 cm]; 90 pp, 24 fine color lithographed (chromolithograph) plates from the author's paintings of live plants. original pictorial gilt cloth, gilt spine title lettering, all edges gilted, light wear and chip to spine ends, interior clean with only light offsetting from plates on opposite leaves, a near fine copy in bright covers, plates with good impressions. A pi Bennett (American Nineteenth Century Color Plate Books) p. 78: 'This is the ranking work on the subject, and very striking'. According to Bennett the first edition, Boston 1885, was issued with text in wrappers and text and plates enclosed in a portfolio, later US issues were bound in one volume. Nissen BBI 1382. This is apparently the first color plate orchid book by an American. The plates include Dendrobium, Masedvallia, Cattleya, Laelia, Phalaenopsis, Oncidium, Calanthe, Odontoglossum, Lycaste, Cymbidiums, Vanda, etc. Woodburn-Hedrick 577: 'large format with bightly colored chromolithographs'.

Edizione: first british edition, same year as first us edition.