A Botanist in Southern Africa

RESTORED

The author was Keeper of the Museums of Botany at the Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew.

The colour frontispiece portrait of Field-Marshal Smuts - in the ownership of the University of Cambridge - was painted by Professor Arthur Pan.

The dedication is to I B Pole-Evans, director of the Botanical Survey of the Union of South Africa "in grateful acknowledgment of much help during my travels". The 4 pp foreword is one of Smuts's longest, most botanically inspired, and most generous - all because of his close friendship with Hutchinson and his works.

The book itself is, with the Marloth series [see Lot 57], for the author of which both Smuts and the Hutchinson were full of praise, possibly the best introduction to the treasures of Southern African botany, going well beyond the borders of South Africa. The book is lavishly illustrated - see next paragraph. Extremely valuable chapters are on the Floral Regions of South Africa, a Review of South African Botanical Literature, and a History of Botanical Exploration in South Africa, including Burchell's localities. Other chapters cover journeys with General Smuts and Smuts's own botanical expeditions, of which Hutchinson was a member, to the Victoria Falls, Lake Tanganyika and the Belgian Congo (in all, some 120 pp). Maps include the author's 1928-29 route and Smuts's 1930 Lake Tanganyika expedition.

Full-bound in green cloth, gilt to spine, plain endpapers, frontispiece + xii + 686 pp of b/w-illustrated text + 48 pp of inserted sepia plates of photographs by I B Pole-Evans + 2 inserted maps (one three-fold) + a three-fold family tree of South Africa plants, printed in green (see image).

CONDITION. The book is complete, unmarked and undiscoloured. The cover corners are bumped. There is light shelf-wear. There is the same owner signature on both paste-downs. The loose front hinge has been strengthened, but the binding remains lightly shaken.

Two other points:

• The book was ready for the press in 1939, but (mainly) because of the war its publication was delayed for seven years.
• The publisher personally (P R Gawthorne) contributed the total cost of its production, for which he received generous acknowledgment from Smuts and Hutchinson.