THE FLORA OF SOUTH AFRICA

4 volumes in 6 parts, 180 colour plates, 80 text figures, original green buckram cloth, titled gilt on the upper covers and spines, top edges gilt, bookplate of Vergenoeg Library on each front free endpaper (this set was sold at the Vergenoeg Library auction on Thursday, 24th July 1980). There is light wear along the edges of the spines of a few volumes and some insect scarring, volumes II and III (in four parts) are slightly bowed, occasional light foxing, overall a 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 for The Flora of South Africa 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. ‘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. After the First World War, the valuable colour plates were sent from Germany to Lionel Phillips’ agents in England for safekeeping. By a cruel stroke of fate the warehouse in which they were stored was destroyed by fire in 1926. Copies of volumes I and IV yet to be bound were also destroyed, which resulted in the production of subsequent copies of these volumes without the colour plates.’

This article also discusses the missing figure 59 in volume IV, 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.