Beschreibung:

Hooker (Joseph Dalton). The Rhododendrons of Sikkim-Himalaya; being an Account, Botanical and Geographical, of the Rhododendrons recently discovered in the Mountains of Eastern Himalaya, from Drawings and Descriptions made on the Spot, during a Government Botanical Mission to that Country. Edited by Sir W. J. Hooker, 3 parts in 1 volume, 1st edition, Reeve, Benham, and Reeve, 1849-51, tinted lithographic vignette to part 1 title-page, 30 hand-coloured lithographic plates after Hooker by W. H. Fitch, heightened in gum arabic, all with tissue-guards, all text leaves present, including dedication leaf, list of subscribers, and description leaf for each plate, small superficial abrasion to fore margin of plate 10, corresponding section of tissue-guard and description repaired, variable spotting to binder's blanks and to description leaves of plates 8, 20 and 30, description leaf of plate 30 also cockled, top edge gilt, contemporary maroon half morocco gilt, a few small scuffs to joints, corners very slightly rubbed, large folio (49.5 x 36.2 cm) (Qty: 1) Nissen BBI 911; Stafleu & Cowan II 2969. An excellent copy with bright plates. Hooker travelled though central and eastern Himalaya from 1847 to 1849, in the company of British government agent Archibald Campbell The pair were briefly imprisoned by the raja of Sikkim for encroaching on Tibetan territory but managed to collect some 7,000 botanical specimens. 'Hooker's and Campbell's travels added twenty-five new rhododendrons to the fifty already known and the spectacular new species they introduced into Britain helped create a rhododendron craze among British gardeners' (ODNB). The lithographer Walter Hood Fitch was a long-standing collaborator of the Hookers and The Rhododendrons of Sikkim-Himalaya is considered among the finest examples of his work.