SILVA, João Maria Antonio da.

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Repositorio de noções de botanica applicada, First edition, presentation copy, inscribed by the author in Portuguese on the first blank, "To the illustrious and honourable Mr José Basto, offered in homage. The author. 19.9.04."Born in Macao in 1834, da Silva moved to Hong Kong as part of the first wave of Portuguese immigrants into the new territory. This scarce book is noted for describing the many plants used by Portuguese residents in East Asia for hundreds of years. Descriptions in Portuguese follow the name of each botanical and plant in multiple languages.José Manuel da Costa Basto, whose initials are in gilt on the front cover, served as the director of the Torre de Tombo National Archive in Lisbon from 1887 to 1902.

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