Description

2 vols. sm. 8vo. with coloured frontispieces (original tissue guards present) and 94 fine coloured plates; green pictorial cloth upper boards and backstrips lettered and blocked in gilt and black second volume neatly recased a very good bright clean set. Anne Pratt (1806-93) author of Common Things of the Sea-side and Our Native Songsters illustrated all her own work and 'in the spirit of the Victorian naturalists successfully merged the study of botany with romantic flower-lore. In 1855 she produced 'The Flowering Plants and Ferns of Great Britain', for which she is most well known' (Blunt). Her first botanical work, 'Wild Flowers' was first produced as a series of 96 coloured cards each containing two illustrations. The first appearance in book form was in 1852 after which it was re-issued numerous times as a late Victorian standard reference. See Freeman 3079, 3080.