

A copy of this book was exhibited recently in the New York Public Library exhibition on photographic pioneer Anna Atkins with the following note: "The cyanotype was introduced in New Zealand not long before 1880, when Herbert Dobbie found himself looking for a way to generate extra income. Dobbie would have been familiar with the process, given his job in the drawing office of the New Zealand Government Railways. A notable feature of Dobbie's book is that both sides of the sheet were cyanotyped - a technical feat perhaps made easier by the fact that he mounted his ferns on large glass sheets, allowing him to print four pages at once."
McCraw in his 1989 census of Dobbie's "blue books" records only 14 copies, including the later re-issues by Craig. These include one copy each of Dobbie A and B, and 7 copies of Dobbie C in collections. Three more copies have since been located: Te Papa Museum of New Zealand has a copy of A, and UC (Berkeley) has a copy of C, and the later 172 Varieties published by Craig.