Flora Londinensis: or plates and descriptions of such Plants As Grow Wild In The Environs Of London:

£9,500 · Offered by Shapero Rare Books

First edition with variant title page, of William Curtis's magisterial survey of the flora of London and the southern counties of England. It was the earliest English flora illustrated with coloured plates to be in any way approaching comprehensive. This issue has a variant title page, with an imprint reading '... by the Author, at his Botanic-Garden, Lambeth-Marsh...'. These volumes were assembled from spare sheets for general sale rather than for subscribers, explaining why the preparatory pages were not included. Another example of this variation is in the Thordarson collection in Madison, Wisconsin. Portrait frontispiece was engraved by F. Sansom, who also contributed to the Flora Londinensis. It was published in memoriam in 1800 by Thomas Curtis a year after William Curtis's death in Curtis's Botanical Magazine, then subsequently added to this volume. The work, intended to portray all the native plants within a ten-mile radius of London, was issued irregularly in 75 numbers between May 1775 and 1798. However, Curtis's ambitious enterprise received little encouragement, and was cut short for lack of subscriptions. According to Henrey's account, no more than 300 of any single number are believed to have been printed. Curtis's reputation as a botanist was such that he was made the praefectus horti (or director) of the Society of Apothecaries at the Chelsea Physic Garden in 1772. The following year he established a botanical garden for the cultivation and study of native Bri

• Binding: Hardcover

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