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John Forbes Royle, Illustrations of the Botany and Other Branches of the Natural History of the Himalayan Mountains, and of the Flora of Cashmere London: William H. Allen and Co., 1839

Volume I: Text - xxviii and 468 pages, not dated
28.5 x 22.5 x 4 cm

Volume II: Plates - Half-titles, hand-coloured aquatint frontispiece view of the Himalayas by J. Clark after Lt.Col. R. Smith (missing), 1 hand-coloured plate of a geological section of the Himalayas, 3 uncoloured lithographic plates of fossils, hand-coloured lithographed plan of the botanic garden at Saharanpore and 97 hand-coloured natural-history plates, drawn on stone by Maxim Gauci and others, coloured by John Clark[e] or Mr.Barclay, after Vishupersaud, Miss Drake, W. Saunders, Luchmun Sing, J.T. Hart and others, printed by Graf & Soret (comprising: 2 plates of mammals, 2 plates of birds, 2 plates of insects, and 91 botanical plates); later full leather bound with title gilt text to the front board and spine with 4 raised bands, marbled edges
37 x 28 x 3 cm

First edition of this "pioneering ecological study" ( M Rix, The Art of the Plant World, p. 183) on the trees, shrubs and flowers of the Himalayan region of the Indian sub-continent, majority of the plates are illustrated with beautiful images after Vishnupersaud (or Vishnu Prasad), ‘the most talented of the native Indian [botanical] artists’ (Blunt).

John Forbes Royle, part of the medical staff of the Bengal Army in Calcutta, was able to combine his medical and military duties with his love of botany when he was appointed Superintendent of the botanical garden at Saharanpur in 1823.He carried out a thorough investigation of the properties of traditional plant-based Indian drugs, and also commissioned an important collection of beautiful and highly accurate drawings of the specimens he found during his plant-hunting expeditions. The resulting collection also contained the first visual record of many species.

In 1831, Forbes returned to England with his herbarium and collection of drawings and began with the publication of the present lot in parts until 1839-1840, possibly delayed by Forbes’ appointment as professor of Materia Medica at King's College, London, in 1837. The majority of the plates in the publication are after native botanical artist Vishnupersaud (or Vishnu Prasad), who was employed by several important plant collectors and botanists of the time, including Nathaniel Wallich and Robert Wight.

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