Plantae Utiliores; or Illustrations of Useful Plants, Employed in the Arts and Medicine [Volumes 1, 2 and part of volume 3 ?] by Burnett, M.A - 1842

Ave Maria Lane, London: Whittaker & Co., 1842. [1842 - [1846]]. Large thick quarto, 172 fine hand coloured plates each with at least one page of descriptive text (often more), two or three early pages with fox blotches, slightly affecting a few plates, plate 4 has been folded at the name to avoid losing any text when trimmed by the binder (see illustration), with plate 24 the red pigment has oxidised slightly and offset to the text, the later few plates and text are slightly age-toned at the margins; with the title page to the first volume but any others have been discarded by the binder, five contents pages are present, and then an owner has bound in a manuscript contents for the last 10 plates, the owner has numbered all the plates on the contents pages and also very faintly and neatly in pencil on each plate corner, the first two blank pages are creased, bound in one volume half calf, very rubbed but firm and sound, the remains of a shelf label on the spine. RARE. Published in four volumes, our copy contains about two thirds of the work. [This book is largely based on the second edition of Stephenson and Churchill's Medical botany, which was edited by G. T. Burnett (M. A. Burnett's brother). The text is fascinatingly detailed and discursive and is in large part the work of G. T. Burnett - Surgeon and botanist, continued his father’s medical practice in London. First professor of botany at King’s College, London, 1831-5; professor of botany to the Society of Apothecaries, 1835. Fellow of the Linnean Society of London, 1831.; the drawings were by M. A. Burnett.]. First Edition. Half-Leather. Good.