Paris, P. Bertrand; Strasbourg, V. Levrault, 1847. Folio (33.8 x 25.0 cm). 140 pp.; 32 lithographed plates (numbered 1-32). Recent quarter cloth over printed boards. Spine with printed label with title.

A very important and rare monograph on the natural history of South America, being the result of years of travels and collecting by one of the foremost French naturalists and palaeontologists, the French explorer, zoologist, botanist and palaeontologist Alcide Charles Victor Marie Dessalines d'Orbigny (1802-1857). This part deals exclusively with palm trees, edited by D'Orbigny and written by the German naturalist, botanist and fellow-explorer of South America, Karl (or Carl) Friedrich Philipp (von) Martius (1794-1868), author of such important works as the 'Nova Genera et Species Plantarum quas in Itinere per Brasiliam' (1824), 'Flora palmarum' (1823-1850), and 'Flora Brasiliensis' (started in 1840 and finished long after his death, in 1906). The illustrations are doubtlessly among the best ever on this subject, with much detail and realism, including the habitats and scenery. The original title is reprinted on the front board. Scattered spotting in the text, as usual, plates much cleaner, with only some light, mostly marginal spotting. An excellent, tastefully bound copy. Nissen BBI, 1471; Pritzel, 6845; Stafleu and Cowan, 5540, 7095.