Wallich, Nathaniel

Plantae Asiaticae rariores; Or, Descriptions and Figures of a Select Number of Unpublished East Indian Plants. London: Richard Taylor for Treuttel and Würtz, [1829]–1830–1832



3 volumes, folio (21 1/2 x 15 in.; 546 x 381 mm). 295 fine handcolored litographed plates on 294 sheets (plates 222/223 constitute one folding plate) by Maxim Gauci after Vishnupersand, Gorachand, Charles M. Curtis, William Griffith, and others, double-page engraved map of India by J. Arrowsmith partially colored in outline, 3-page list of subscribers in vol. 1, half-titles in vols. 1 and 3 only (as usual), table of plates in each volume; light toning to several quires in vols. 1 and 3, plates 31 and 158 toned, minor marginal soiling to plates, chiefly confined to vol. 1, small loss to bottom margin of 3:2E1.  Contemporary quarter green morocco over cloth, boards and extremities rubbed, small tear to head of spine of vol. 3.

Dunthorne 326 (incorrect plate count); Great Flower Books 149; Nissen BBI 2099 (incorrect plate count); Pritzel 9957; Stafleu & Cowan TL2 16.583

First edition, of which only 254 copies of this magnificent work on Indian plants were issued.  Wallich, a Danish botanist, was the first European to study the plants of Nepal and the countries to the south of the Himalayas.  In 1817 he succeeded William Roxburgh as superintendant of the Botanical Gardens in Calcutta where he served until his retirement in 1846. During his tenure he trained native artists in botanical drawing, and one of his most accomplished draughtsman, Vishnupersaud or Vishnu Prasad, accompanied him on several journeys. Nearly all the illustrations in the Wallich's magnum opus are the work of these Indian artists (114 by Vishnupersaud, 87 by Gorachand), and are "so vivid and vigorous that they make most other plant drawings look insipid by comparison" (Alice M. Coats, The Book of Flowers, 109).  In 1828, Walich travelled to England, bringing with him 8,000 specimens and 1,200 drawings.  On his extended leave, he supervised the printing of the plates by Maxim Gauci and the handcoloring of the plates by John Clark, both of whom he praised in his work for their expert abilities. The resulting work is a meritorious extension to Roxburgh's Plants of the Coromandel Coast (London, 1795–1820)