The Indigenous Grasses Of New Zealand

Wellington: George Didsbury, Government Printer. Very Good with no dust jacket. 1880. First Edition. Hardcover. Ex-library, General Assembly Library, New Zealand (Parliamentary Library) "New Zealand Collection". Gilt library stamp at tail of spine. Large gilt library stamp on front board. Library label on front endpaper, with rubber stamp "Withdrawn from Parliamentary Library". Joints rubbed. Abrasions to leather along front board near front joint. Leather rubbed at corners of boards, with 8mm loss of leather along edges of corners of boards. Internally very good. Hinges intact. No library markings on plate leaves. ; [4], 13, [3] pages + 64 plates accompanied by 90 leaves of descriptive letterpress + "Addenda" leaf. Plates printed on a cream coloured background. Plates accompanied by 90 leaves of descriptive letterpress. "Addenda" leaf bound in before Plate XVII.2. Half morocco binding. Gilt decoration to spine. Marbled endpapers. Marbled page edges. Hinges with cloth reinforcement. Folio. Page dimensions: 367mm x 265mm. First one volume edition, preceded by an edition in 6 parts, 1878-1880. (A smaller sized edition in which the plates were reduced by photo-lithography was also published in 1880, with the title "Manual of the Indigenous Grasses of New Zealand".) "The very high quality of the plates is a tribute both to Buchanan's skill as a draftsman and botanist as well as to J. Earle, lithographer in the Government Printing Office, whose work is in striking contrast to that done some years later." - Bagnall. The 64 plates are numbered from I-LVIII, + XVIII.2, XXVI.2, XXIX.2, XXXIII.2, XXXIV.2, XXXVI.2. Plate XXXI is misnumbered XXXII. Plates are all bound in numerical order, e.g. plate XVII.2 follows plate XVII. Gilt lettering on spine: "BUCHANAN / INDIGENOUS / GRASSES / OF / NEW ZEALAND / 1878 - 80". [Reference: Bagnall 733]; Folio .