

5 works in 6 volumes, 4to (11 1/4 x 8 3/4 in.; 286 x 222 mm). Binding: Modern half green morocco gilt over the original publisher's green blindstamped cloth covers, original gilt-lettering and gilt floral vignettes on upper covers.
Condition varies, some light browning, a few rough edges, plate 23 in Ornamental Perennials and plate 15 in British Wildflowers detached. Buckram covers with some wear.
In addition to creating practical gardening guides for nonspecialists, Mrs. Loudon was an early pioneer of what would later be called science fiction. Her novel The Mummy!: Or a Tale of the Twenty-Second Century (1827) predicted a world in which women wore trousers, lawyers and surgeons were replaced by automatons, and information was dispersed by a system similar to the Internet. The novel is considered a feminist classic as well as a precursor of science fiction. Jane Webb met her future husband after he wrote a favorable review of her novel. They became the leading horticulturists of their day and numbered Dickens and Thackeray among their friends.