Pau, Garet, [1803]-1909. Thick 8vo (24.3 x 16.1 cm). lxxxvi, 960 pp. Contemporary full cloth with green morocco label with gilt title on the spine. Marbled endpapers. Printed wrappers bound in.

Written by the French botanist Jean Bergeret, and completed by his son, Eugène Bergeret, but remaining unpublished until 1909, with the addition of a preface and notes by his grandson, the writer [Jean Adrien] Gaston Bergeret (1840-1921). Jean Bergeret was professor of natural history and vice-president of the Agricultural Council of the département Basses-Pyrénées. His herbarium is in the Pau Museum. Born in Pontacq, he studied philosophy in Pau in 1771. In 1780, he began studying medicine in Toulouse and in 1788 he settled permanently in Morlaàs as a doctor. In addition to the practice of medicine and his mandate as mayor, he assumed numerous public offices and, in 1796, he obtained the chair of natural history at the central school of Basses-Pyrénées. He created a botanical garden which, unfortunately, was destroyed in 1802, together with the school. Despite all his occupations, Jean Bergeret often grew plants. He knew the flora of Béarn perfectly, and especially that of the region located between the Gaves d'Oloron and Pau, on the one hand, and the valleys of Ossau and Aspe on the other. He often collected plants near Eaux-Chaudes, Gabas, Bious, and the Spanish border. His only work was based on these excursions. The first two volumes were published in 1803. They include descriptions of plants from the first thirteen classes of the Linnaean classification. The suite, by his son Eugène, contains the descriptions of the plants of the last eleven classes and appeared more than two centuries later, in 1909, on behalf of Gaston Bergeret. Stafleu and Cowan, 455.