St. Petersburg, Izdanie Kartograficheskago Zavedeniya A. Il'ina, 1883. Small folio (32.6 x 24.2 cm). 22 pp.; 20 chromolithographed plates. Contemporary quarter calf over marbled boards. Spine with gilt bands.

Rare botanical atlas, by Nikolai Petrovich Zhivotovsky (1846-1888), regarded as one of the most famous books on natural sciences in pre-revolutionary Russia. Published by the Karτοgraficheskagο Zavedenιy A. Ilyin. The fine illustrations by Vladimir Korolenko (1853-1921) show mostly flowering plants, from Russia, surrounded by anatomical details. Very finely done and artistically composed. Each plate has a page of descriptive text in Russian, with Latin plant names. Boards a bit rubbed, some thumbing in the lower outer margins, erased stamp on title, a few light pencil marks, some weak offsetting, one plate with a short, marginal tear. Colouring bright and natural. A very good copy. Neither in Nissen BBI, nor in Stafleu and Cowan.