Ericas in Southern Africa

Landmark work on South Africa's Ericaceae

4to; original coarse green cloth, lettered in gilt on spine; pictorial dustwrapper; decorative endpapers; pp. lxvi + 180, incl. index; folding distribution map; continental distribution map; facsimiles; some line drawings; table; colour plates.  Dustwrapper partially tanned; edges a bit tanned.  Excellent copy.  

"One hundred and fifty years ago Andrews's classic illustrated works on South African Ericas were first published in England.  Today these volumes are rarely available to the collector of Africana, and are beyond the reach of the average person.  Since the Andrews volumes there has been no illustrated work devoted exclusively to South African Ericas even though this is such a vast genus of over 600 species and of such great interest.  

It is not possible in a single volume adequately to describe and illustrate each species.  This work is representative of a cross-section of the genus as a whole throughout Southern Africa and 167 species are illustrated in full colour and great detail.  As the genus is divided into a number of sections in which the members have some relative affinity, species representative of each section are chosen with, in addition, special reference to size, range of form, colour variations and geographical distribution to make it as far as possible representative of the whole genus."