The Genus Iris. The Genus Iris; Atlas of coloured plates. First edition.

Folio. 28 x 44cm. Green buckram. 48 color plates from the 1913 Cambridge University Press edition.Provenance: Inscription of Paul J. Bowman and wife on front free endpaper recto 1952.OCLC Number / Unique Identifier:15251031. Dr Paul Jay Bowman had the largest collection of Rhododendrons in the USA. Gold Medal Award Citation for Paul Jay Bowman, M.D.May 14, 1968:"For his deep devotion to the genus Rhododendron and particularly for his pioneering work in collecting and distributing rhododendrons especially suited to the California climate, the American Rhododendron Society is very pleased to present its highest honor, The Gold Medal, to Dr. Paul Jay Bowman of Fort Bragg, California. .".Paul Bowman was born in Middleton, Pennsylvania, in 1893, and graduated from Lebanon College in 1915 and from Johns Hopkins Medical School in 1919. He interned at Southern Pacific Hospital in San Francisco, arriving in 1920, where he met Dr. Franklin Campbell, who had recently moved to Fort Bragg. Dr. Campbell persuaded Union Lumber Company to build a new hospital at Main and Fir Streets, where he was lead physician until 1923. Now known locally as the Grey Whale Inn, that hospital was originally called Fort Bragg Hospital.Dr. Bowman first visited Fort Bragg when he filled in at the Fort Bragg Hospital while Dr. Campbell was on vacation. He was immediately captivated with the rhododendrons growing wild all over the north coast. Dr. Bowman wound up purchasing the hospital in 1923, renaming it the Redwood Coast Hospital and practiced medicine there until 1966. …