The North American Sylva; or a description of the forest trees of the United States, Canada, and Nova Scotia. Considered particularly with respect to their use in the arts and their introduction into commerce. To which is added a description of the most useful of the European forest trees. Illustrated by 156 coloured engravings BOUND WITH The North American Sylva; or, a description of the forest trees of the United States, Canada, and Nova Scotia, not described in the work of F. Andrew Michaux, and containing all the forest trees discovered in the Rocky Mountains, the territory of the Oregon, down to the shores of the Pacific, and into the confines of California, as well as in various parts of the United States. Illustrated by 121 colored p

Michaux,FrançoisAndré & Thomas Nuttall

Edité par Rice, Rutter & Co, Philadelphia, 1865

A propos de cet article

Six volumes in five (Michaux: three volumes; Nuttall: three volumes in two). Philadelphia: Rice, Rutter & Co., 1865. Michaux [trans. Augustus Lucas Hillhouse], ed. J. Jay Smith. Quarto (10 3/8" x 6 5/8", 263mm x 166mm). With an engraved portrait frontispiece and 278 stipple-engraved plates, hand-colored and heightened with gum arabic. Bound in contemporary brown half morocco over marbled boards. On the spine, 5 raised bands. Title gilt to the second panel, with author and volume gilt to the fourth panel. All edges of the text-block gilt. Beige-glazed end paper. Rubbed at the extremities, with some chips. Mildly foxed throughout. With tissue-guards bound in. Joints starting with the front of Vol. 1 of Michaux split but still strong. François André Michaux (1770-1855) accompanied his father André, botaniste royale to Louis XVI, to America in 1785. Together they explored the eastern part of the continent from Florida to Hudson's Bay, going as far west as the Mississippi River. François returned to France in 1790 to study medicine, and despite his royal association made it through the Revolution. Eventually he was sent by the French State to America once again, with a view to finding species suitable for introduction to the European climate. Following this tour he commenced his magnum opus, published 1810-1813 and translated as the present work. It far surpassed the previous treatments of American trees and employed the luminaries of botanical illustration (the Redouté brothers, Bessa and Riché) for the production of the plates. Thomas Nuttall (1786-1859) was an English botanist explorer and professor who, like Michaux, migrated from Europe to America to expand on the work of his predecessors and peers in the field of natural history. In Philadelphia, Nuttall met with Benjamin Smith Barton, the distinguished botanist and one of the first professors of Natural History, who encouraged his pursuit of the field. In 1810, he travelled to the Great Lakes, and the following year embarked on the Astor Expedition up the Missouri River. Despite having been explored by Lewis and Clarke in 1804, most of the specimens from their expedition had been lost along the way, so that many of the plants that Nuttall collected were yet unknown to science. As the title indicates, Nuttall's task was to supplement the work of Michaux. With the United States on the cusp of war with England in 1812, Nuttall returned to London via New Orleans and brought with him his extensive plant collection to organize and study. By 1815, he had returned to America to continue his botanical explorations and published multiple works in the ensuing years. Nuttall was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society as well as a curator of botanicals at Harvard University. For the next two decades, he continued traveling and botanizing across the United States, as well as working at the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia from 1836-1841. Before returning to England to secure the inheritance of a property from his late uncle (who stipulated that he live in the country 9 months of the year), Nuttall completed his own North American Sylva, the culmination of his work in the United States. First published in Philadelphia in 1842-1849, these three volumes, here printed and bound two, were originally published as separate works. Michaux's and Nuttall's North American Sylva were eventually combined and published to become the most important work on trees prior to the XXc. Sabin 56351; Stafleu & Cowan 5966 (Michaux), 6930.

N° de réf. du vendeur KMP0004

Détails bibliographiques

• Titre: The North American Sylva; or a description of the forest trees of the United States, Canada, and Nova Scotia. Considered particularly with respect to their use in the arts and their introduction into commerce. To which is added a description of the most useful of the European forest trees. Illustrated by 156 coloured engravings BOUND WITH The North American Sylva; or, a description of the forest trees of the United States, Canada, and Nova Scotia, not described in the work of F. Andrew Michaux,...
• Éditeur: Rice, Rutter & Co, Philadelphia
• Date de parution: 1865
• Reliure: Hardcover
• État de l'article: Very good
• Catalogues du vendeur:
  • Trees
  • Americana
  • Natural History