ST. HELENA

First edition: xiv, 426 pages, chromolithographic frontispiece and 7 similar plates - all India paper proofs - including one of Napoleon's tomb opposite page 27 , 45 further lithographic plates - including 37 botanical colour lithographs, 3 maps - 2 are double page spreads, full brown calf maroon title label on the spine which is decorated gilt in panels – the leather on the spine and corners is rubbed, marbled endpapers and edges, contents bright, a very good copy.

With an autograph letter from the author tipped onto the front free endpaper.

John Charles Melliss was a British engineer, formerly a military officer in the Royal Engineers. J.C. Mellis was also employed in St Helena by the colonial government, working on projects such as the restoration of Longwood House, Napoleon's home (1815-1821) during his exile on the island.

During his stay on St Helena, J.C. Melliss was encouraged to take an interest in the natural history and on his return to England, Melliss published a landmark book St Helena which established him as the first historian of the island and included a section on natural history intended as a precursor for an ambitious broader study of the African islands of the southern Atlantic. The botanical illustrations for the floristic survey were by his wife. His book provides important documentary evidence of a unique flora under threat as it was being heavily modified by the island's inhabitants and a number of species were in the process of becoming extinct.

Melliss was interested in all aspects of natural history and a wide range of specimens were deposited at the Natural History Museum in London and with other organisations. https://plants.jstor.org/stable/10.5555/al.ap.person.bm000041108