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Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker, Illustrations of Himalayan Plants: Chiefly selected from Drawings made for the late J.F. Cathcart Esq. of the Bengal Civil Service, London: Lovell Reeve, 1855

Letterpress title, dedication leaf, list of subscribers, 4 pages introduction, explanation leaf, text, and index leaf. Lithographic additional title within an elaborate hand-coloured border, 24 hand-coloured lithographic plates by W.H. Fitch after Hooker and Fitch; half green leather bound with matching green cloth boards and gilt text to the spine with 5 raised bands, all edges gilt
50.6 x 37.5 x 2.3 cm

"One of the finest flower books ever produced" - Jan Lewis

First and only edition of Hooker's second work on Himalayan plants illustrated by Walter Hood Fitch, the most famous botanical artist of the Ninteenth century. The superbly illustrated title page shows thirty different species of Himalayan plants.

"For the title page of the book, Fitch created a design of thirty different species of Himalyan flora. Other pages, vibrant with colour, illustrate such plants as the purple 'Magnolia campbellii', or the 'Querrcus lamellosa'. The Victorians loved superlatives, and they loved this book. Not only did it contain Fitch's best work, but it was also one of the finest flower books ever produced. It created a sensation in 1855 when it sold for 5 guineas." (Jan Lewis, Walter Hood Fitch, a celebration, p.16). (Great Flower Books, p. 60.)

The book was to be published with the financial support of Cathcart (with whom Hooker had stayed in Bengal) and to be distributed free to 'the principal botanists and scientific establishments in Europe'. However, Carthcart died 49 years old, on his way back to London, at Lausanne. The book was then financed by the family as well as by others. The book had 176 subscribers amongst which Charles Darwin to whom Hooker had dedicated his 'Himalayan Journals' (1854). The original drawings for the present work were done by native artists and were redrawn by Fitch to correct 'the stiffness and want of botanical knowledge displayed by the native artists who executed most of the originals' (from the Introduction).

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