AN INTRODUCTION TO SOUTH AFRICAN ORCHIDS Signed

109 pages, 64 colour plates, 47 drawings in the text. Signed by the author on title page.

Black linen boards with gilt to spine. Clean internally and binding strong. Dustjacket has tiny chips on head of spine and 3 cm on delamination on the fold , otherwise a good copy.

An Introduction to the South African Orchids (1966) by E.A.C.L.E. "Ted" Schelpe is an introductory field guide pitched at amateur botanists and interested nonspecialists rather than professional researchers — a "reader's start" rather than a complete taxonomic treatment. Ted Schelpe was curator of the Bolus herbarium at the time of writing.

The book provides a key to identify South Africa's indigenous orchids at least to genus, illustrates at least one species for most of them in colour, and includes line diagrams of floral structure. For each genus it gives habitat, distribution in South Africa and worldwide, flowering times, and cultivation notes, alongside explanations of the plants' unusual flower biology.