THE FLORA OF SOUTH AFRICA

4 volumes in 6 parts, 180 colour plates, 80 text figures, rebound in full green leather with contrasting green and black title labels on the spines, top edges gilt, some very light  foxing in volume 3, part 2, overall a very good set.

Marloth was an analytical chemist by profession and soon after he arrived in Cape Town in 1883 he started a herbarium of South African plants. He was devoted to the search for rare flora and he went on botanical expeditions as far afield as the Karoo, the Free State, Botswana and Namibia. The originals of the colour plates were painted in Cape Town by artists such as Ester Smith and Ethel May Dixie and printed in Germany. See Woods, \'Veld and Flora\', September 1976, pp.10-11. This article also discusses the missing figure 59 concluding that as the figure was sent out after publication to be inserted very few copies are found with the missing illustration. The errant illustration was reproduced in \'Veld & Flora\' in June 1986 accompanied by a note by R. Geary-Cooke and a photocopy of figure 59 has been included in the set we offer here. Of Florence Phillips Woods writes, ‘The production of this costly and magnificent work was made possible only by the bountiful generosity of Sir Lionel and Lady Phillips, who together bore the entire cost of printing and publication. At the outset Lady Phillips had asked Marloth if he could write a popular book on South African flora, but he made it clear that it would have to be scientific. It could be said that the final result was a happy combination of both aspects’.