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Large thick quarto, pp viii, 326, xx, (10), top edge gilt, two double page charts and a map, 4 coloured plates lettered A to D, 77 coloured plates (numbered 1 - 67, + 11 bis plates)] plate 17 was not published, one internal hinge slightly stretched, endpaper a little oxidised, the half-title and the final leaf foxed, the title page lightly foxed, slightly age-toned internally, the rear hinge a little cracked but not weak, original brown beveled cloth, slightly worn and rubbed, the spine pulled at head and tail with rwo short tears at each, a small bruise on the lower cover. The plates are very fine chromolithographs. A very attractive wood-engraved scene, usually in Turkey, precedes most species section; these are by the Brothers Dalziel. The book was printed by Fawcett of Driffield. With the attractive bookplate of the Scottish author and nurseryman William Cuthbertson, at one time a senior partner in Dobies Nurseries. A heavy book - extra postage will be needed. ["Maw was a Fellow of the Linnean Society, the Society of Antiquaries, and the Royal Historical Society. He became a Fellow of the Geological Society in 1864. He was a member of the RHS Scientific Committee during the 1880s, and served brief terms on the Floral Committee, Daffodil Committee and Library Committee. Maw made frequent plant collecting trips including to the Mediterranean and Eastern Europe. In 1871 he accompanied Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker and John Ball on a plant collecting expedition to Morocco and the Atlas Mountains, and letters from Hooker to Maw give details of their preparations. A full account of the trip was published in 'Journal of a Tour in Marocco and the Atlas Mountains'. Maw wrote occasional articles for the garden press and was an accomplished artist: John Ruskin wrote of his crocus drawings that they were 'most exquisite . and quite beyond criticism'. In 1886 Maw published 'A Monograph of the Genus Crocus', the result of over ten years of collecting and research, illustrated using his own watercolours. Many of the bulbs and plants he collected on his plant collecting expeditions were planted in the garden at Benthall Hall, later owned by the National Trust. Correspondence between Maw and the friends and contacts who helped to collect the 67 species of Crocus detailed in his work forms a significant part of the archive. Maw retired in 1886 due to ill health, and moved to live at Rangemore in Kenley, Surrey, changing the house name to Benthall. Frederica Mary died on 6 Feb 1894. George Maw died on the 7 Feb 1912." - British Museum.]. ["George Maw (1839-1912) was the industrious author and illustrator of his great 'Monograph of the Genus Crocus' (1886). A many-sided and remarkable man, Maw was not a botanist by profession but a chemist and geologist, a manufacturer of encaustic tiles at Broseley, Staffs. His monograph, the result of ten years of inquiry, was the most complete work of its kind that has been published on any genus. The plates of this work are marvels of comprehensive detail and put to shame those of many more skilled draughtsmen. From a botanical point of view this work is a landmark."(Blunt & Stearn".].
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