THE BOTANIC GARDEN; CONSISTING OF HIGHLY FINISHED REPRESENTATIONS OF HARDY ORNAMENTAL FLOWERING PLANTS, CULTIVATED IN GREAT BRITAIN; WITH THE NAMES, CLASSES, ORDERS, HISTORY, QUALITIES, CULTURE, AND PHYSIOLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS [VOLUME II].
Book Details + Condition: Baldwin and Cradock (London). First Edition, 1828. Volume II only - please see our other listings for accompanying first edition volumes that are for sale. Hardcover with dark green leather boards, with gilt ruling to front and rear; raised bands to spine; marbled endpapers. 227 pages. Illustrated with 24 hand-colored engraved flowering plants, with descriptions and attributes ascribed for each plant. Four different plants per plate (#97-193); and each remains protected with the original tissue guards. Includes extra engraved title page. In 1825-26, Benjamin Maund produced an illustrated periodical that described flowering plants to provide scientific instruction to the British gardener, known as “The Botanic Garden”. The Botanic Garden was later named The Botanical Garden, running from 1825-1852, and containing a total of 13 volumes. Please see below for more information on Benjamin Maund.
A very scarce, first edition copy in solid and clean condition, with light wear to leather (mainly scuffing and rubbing); rubbed corners and edges; foxing present - heavier to first & last few pages, with occasional areas to interior; inked name to ffep; text and plates are clean and free of markings.
"Benjamin Maund (1790–1863) was a British pharmacist, botanist, printer, bookseller, fellow of the Linnean Society (1827) and publisher of the Botanic Garden and The Botanist. He served on the committee of the Worcestershire Natural History Society where he started a monthly botanical publication. Starting in 1825, Maund produced The Botanic Garden from his press at Bromsgrove in Worcestershire. The 13 volumes of this periodical depicted with great delicacy ornamental flowering plants cultivated in the Royal Gardens and was dedicated to the young Queen Victoria. Eminent botanical artists such as Augusta Innes Withers, Edwin D. Smith, Mrs. Edward Bury and Maund's own daughter contributed to the work." [Wikipedia]