Blume | Flora Javae, 1828-1858; Rumphia, 1835-1848, together 8 volumes (bound in 7), green half morocco

Karl Ludwig Blume

A set of eight volumes (bound in seven) on the flora of the East Indies by Blume, comprising:

Flora Javae nec non insularum adjacentium (Nova series). Brussels: H. Remy for J. Frank, 1828-1836 (volume 4: Leiden: the author, to be sold by C.G. Sulpke in Amsterdam, 1858), 4 volumes, folio (440 x 255mm.), half-titles, 308 lithographed plates mostly hand-coloured (of which 15 double-page), lithographed frontispiece in volume 4

Rumphia, sive commentationes botanicae imprimis de plantis Indiae Orientalis. Leiden, 1835-1848 (vol.2: Brussels: H.Remy, 1836), 4 volumes in 3, folio (440 x 265mm.), half-titles, 3 lithographed frontispieces (in volumes 1-3), 210 lithographed plates, mostly hand-coloured (of which 19 double-page and folding), small stain on plate 84

together 7 volumes, near-uniform nineteenth-century green half morocco by Hammond, spines gilt, top edges gilt, others uncut, some spotting throughout

Blume (1796-1862) travelled widely in Java before becoming director of the Bogor Gardens in Java and then at the Rijksherbarium in Leiden. The "nova series" of the first work contains details of orchids; this was also published separately with the title Collections des orchidées... in 1858.

The second work was issued to complement the first, and entitled Rumphia in homage to the seventeenth-century botanist Georg Eberhard Rumpf, who produced a catalogue of the flora of Amboina in Indonesia. The plates include views of the area including one of the botanical garden at Bogor.

LITERATURE:

Flora Javae: Nissen BBI 174; Cleveland 940 (volumes 1-3 only)

Rumphia: Nissen BBI 178; Stafleu TL2 566