African Violets, Gloxinias, and Their Relatives: A Guide to the Cultivated Gesneriads

The Macmillan Company, New York. Published 1957. Hardcover, xii, 323 pp.; 22 cm; first printing (so stated); illustrated with color botanical plates by Marion Ruff Sheehan and numerous black-and-white text figures. In very good condition, no dust jacket. Tan cloth-covered boards with black lettering on spine. Mild shelf and surface wear. Binding tight. Endpapers lightly toned, otherwise unmarked. A guide to the cultivated gesneriads, the plant family that includes African violets, gloxinias, and their many relatives (Achimenes, Episcia, Sinningia, Streptocarpus, and others). Covers their origins, cultivation, propagation, pests, and hybridization, then gives a systematic survey of the genera with keys to the cultivated species. A standard reference on the family, written by the Cornell botanist Harold E. Moore, Jr., and illustrated with color botanical plates by Marion Ruff Sheehan. Contents: Part One, Growing Gesneriads (Gesneriads at Home; Gesneriads Under Culture; Propagation; Pests and Diseases; Hybrids, Mutants, and Hybridization); Part Two, Kinds of Gesneriads (Introduction, with a Key to the Cultivated Genera; Gesneriads with Tubers; Gesneriads with Scaly Rhizomes; Gesneriads with Two Stamens; Gesneriads with Glands; European and Asiatic Gesneriads Without Visible Stems; Some Miscellaneous Gesneriads); Part Three, Appendices (Accepted Names; Pronunciation and Meaning of Names; Chromosome Numbers; Selected References; Glossary); Index.…