William Hooker | The Rhododendrons of Sikkim-Himalaya. London, 1849 [-51], folio, half morocco

William Hooker

The Rhododendrons of Sikkim-Himalaya; being an account, botanical and geographical, of the Rhododendrons recently discovered in the mountains of Eastern Himalaya, from drawings and descriptions made on the spot, during a government botanical

mission to that country. London: Reeve, Benham and Reeve, 1849 [-1851]

3 parts bound in one, folio (490 x 380mm.), handcoloured vignette of the Himalaya mountains, 30 handcoloured lithographed plates with descriptive text, contemporary half morocco, marbled boards, spine with raised bands in six compartments gilt, marbled endpapers, one text leaf with small marginal repair, some light foxing, residue of stamp to front pastedown, spine slightly sunned, slightly rubbed

One of the most attractive botanical books of the nineteenth-century. "An important work, both for the botanist and horticulturist since it contains descriptions and plates of many of the best garden Rhododendron species which can be grown in this country and an account of their discovery" (Great Flower Books). The text was edited by Sir William Hooker (1785-1865) from his son's field notes sent back from India. "The drawings, based on Hooker's dried specimens and field sketches, were by Kew's official botanical artist, Walter Hood Fitch. Fitch's vigorous, confident lines and bold colouring miraculously recreated exotic bloom - 29 had been delineated by the time the last plate appeared in 1851 - which excited the botanist and were to provide the gardener with some of our best garden species" (Desmond, The European discovery of the Indian flora, p. 144).

LITERATURE:

Great Flower Books, p. 60; Nissen BBI 911; Desmond, The European discovery of the Indian flora, p. 144; Pritzel 4200