Notes of a Botanist on the Amazon and Andes: Being Records of Travel on the Amazon and Its Tributaries. Along the Eastern Side of the Andes of Peru and Ecuador (Complete in 2 Volumes)

Fine. Complete two-volume matched set. 2018 Forgotten Books casebound reprint edition. Octavos (approx. 9 x 6 inches); lii, 518 pp. (Vol. 1); xii, 542 pp. (Vol. 2). Bound in publisher's original deep blue and antique-cream glossy pictorial boards with ornate gold and navy filigree framing and gilt-patterned rear panels; issued without jackets. Illustrated with facsimile reproductions of Spruce’s original pencil sketches, botanical engravings, portraits, and expedition route maps. An immaculate, unread set with razor-sharp corners, tight hinges, and bright, spotless interior leaves throughout. An essential primary account of 19th-century South American natural history and scientific exploration, recording the legendary fifteen-year botanical expedition (1849–1864) of English botanist Richard Spruce. Traveling alongside fellow naturalists Alfred Russel Wallace and Henry Walter Bates, Spruce traversed thousands of miles of uncharted river systems across Brazil, Venezuela, Peru, and Ecuador—including the Amazon, Rio Negro, Trombetas, Pastasa, and the upper Orinoco cataracts. Spruce collected over 30,000 plant specimens, made groundbreaking discoveries in bryology and ethnobotany, and successfully gathered the wild Cinchona succirubra (quinine) seeds that established malaria-fighting plantations in India. Edited and published posthumously by Wallace, this narrative combines rigorous botanical fieldwork with extraordinary travel observations on indigenous cultures, hallucinogenic plants, and Amazonian ecology. A cornerstone work for collections in South American exploration, ethnobotany, and history of science.…