THE BOTANIST'S REPOSITORY, FOR NEW, AND RARE PLANTS. CONTAINING COLOURED FIGURES OF SUCH PLANTS, AS HAVE NOT HITHERTO APPEARED IN ANY SIMILAR PUBLICATION...

London: T. Bensley for the author, 1797-1815. First Edition. Hardcover. Fairly large copy in comparison to others sold in the recent past. Occasional minor foxing, toning, or off-setting; some light pencil notes/corrections to some leaves. In all, rather clean and attractive examples of these volumes with the plates generally bright and vivid with offsetting to text. Rubbing and light scuffs to bindings. Near Fine. Twelve large quarto volumes (8-1/2" x 10-1/2") volumes consisting of volumes 1-6 bound in full green morocco leather gilt with all edges gilt and volumes 5-10 in half brown morocco with marbled boards and matching morocco corners, gilt-lettered spines; marbled endpapers. A complete 10-volume set made up from two different incomplete sets resulting in duplicate volumes of 5 and 6 resulting in a total of 12 volumes. Illustrated with 664 plates with 64 folding/double, in the complete set, plus 144 plates with 4 folding/double bringing the grand total to 808 hand-colored plates with 68 folding/double. Duplicate text for plate 291 with no text for plate 290. Started as a rival to Curtis's THE BOTANICAL MAGAZINE, this magazine featured more new plants than its rival and larger and generally better quality plates. It also differed in making a contribution of lasting importance to the literature of botany and horticulture by providing records and means of identification of a great diversity of beautiful and interesting plants, many of them new to science. The text of the fifth volume is by John Kennedy (the author's father-in-law), the sixth volume by A. H. Haworth, and the last four volumes by George Jackson. DUNTHORNE 8: "A fine and interesting work of distinct individuality and character"; GREAT FLOWER BOOKS, page 83; NISSEN 2382; PRITZEL 474. Truly magnificent hand-colored plates and quite scarce.

A beautifully illustrated and important horticulture title providing records and means of identification of a great diversity of beautiful and interesting plants, many of them from Australia and South Africa and many new to science.