Wittenberg, bey dem Verfasser [privately published], 1801-1806, 1840. Two parts (text and atlas) and supplement in three. 8vo (21.0 x 12.7 cm). Frontispiece portrait, [ii], 128; xii, 94 pp. (interleaved); 93 plates, lettered A-Ssss [J, Jj, jjj, and Jjjj not used]; I-XL. Main work: 19th-century uniform half calf over marbled boards. Spines with gilt title. Marbled endpapers. Supplement in contemporary blind, grained green cloth, with yellow endpapers. Original printed front wrapper bound in.

A complete copy of the original edition of a rare monograph (the first of its kind) on grasses, written and illustrated by the German botanist Christian Schkuhr (1741-1811). Interleaved copy. With additional notes in a neat, old hand, on ruled paper. The comments are written in English; there are some additional remarks in pencil. Plate numbering is peculiar, going from A to Z, followed by Aa -Zz, Aaa-Zzz and finally Aaaa-Ssss, but the plates A to Aaaa have a Roman number, e.g., CCLXXXII too. Nissen records that plates up to Ddd belong to the first part, published in 1801, and the remainder of 39 plates to the second, published in 1806. ADDED: the 40 first, hand-coloured plates, of the even rarer supplement atlas, published long after Schkuhr's death, by the German botanist Gustav Kunze (1793-1851), with a front wrapper, stating Supplemente der Riedgräser (Carices) zu Chr. Schkhur's Monographie in Abbildung und Beschreibung herausgegeben von D. Gustav Kunze, oder Schkuhr's Riedgräser Neue Folge, published in Leipzig by Ernst Fleischer in 1840-[1850]. This work was completed in 50 plates and an additional 206 text pages. Spine and boards rubbed at edges, otherwise very good. Junk Rara, "Selten"; Nissen BBI, 1765; Stafleu and Cowan, 10.728.