Chang-Hai, Pères de la Compagnie Jésus (Imprimerie de la Mission Catholique), 1882-1885-1890. 4to (34.9 x 24.7 cm). [ii], 196 pp.; 31 lithographed plates (numbered XII-XXI, XXIII-XLIII) with explanatory text leaves. Later olive cloth with title on spine. Original blue printed wrappers preserved.

Pierre Marie Heude (1836-1902) was one of the first to describe the rich and diverse terrestrial malacofauna of China. This rare work (we found no auction records) deals with the land and freshwater molluscs of central China, along the main river, the Yangtze or Yangzi: "the longest river in Asia, the third-longest in the world and the longest in the world to flow entirely within one country. It rises at Jari Hill in the Tanggula Mountains (Tibetan Plateau) and flows 6,300 km (3,900 mi) in a generally easterly direction to the East China Sea. It is the sixth-largest river by discharge volume in the world. Its drainage basin comprises one-fifth of the land area of China, and is home to nearly one-third of the country's population" (Wikipedia). The results were published over a long period, in parts in the Mémoires concernant l'histoire naturelle de l'empire Chinois par des pères de la Compagnie Jésus. Many species are new. In fact, one can hardly imagine any other work as important to Chinese malacology. The illustrations are very good. The text is consecutively numbered (although pp. 125-132 have been used twice, by mistake), but the plates are not. Plates 1-11 and 22 (overlooked by Nissen, who quotes "Taf. 12-42") belong to other, unrelated papers, and, in particular, several compilers including Prashad have not noted the exclusion of Plate 22. All parts are extremely rare and complete sets are virtually non-existent. Sandwiched between the last two parts is Heude's 12 pp. Catalogue des cerfs tachetés (Sikas) du Musée de Zi-Ka-Wei, ou notes préparatoires a la monographie de ce groupe. ADDED: B. Prashad's On the dates of publication of P. M. Heude's Memoirs on the Molluscs of China ( J. Proc. Asiatic Soc. Bengal (N.S.) 22 (1926), a rare offprint. First front wrapper reinforced at edges; otherwise, a very good clean, and complete copy. Nissen ZBI, 1929 (in part).