CLARKE, William A. First Records of British Flowering Plants. London: West, Newman & Co. 1897.
8vo. Original limp green boards, gilt lettering to front; pp. 103. [1]; marginal notes in ink, very good.
First edition.
Clarke's assiduous work in listing the first recorded scientific description of each species of the native flora of Britain was initially published in sections in the Journal of Botany between 1892 and 1896. Here it appears complete, expanded and amended for the first time. The second edition of 1900 is relatively easy to find, as are modern reprints of this extremely useful work, but the first edition remains elusive because of its small print run. "Until 1897, when William Clarke produced his First records of British flowering plants, there was no publication where one could see the date and source of the discovery of all of the native plants in Britain and Ireland" (David A Pearman, "Chronicling the discovery of the British and Irish native floras", Archives of natural history, Volume 45, Issue 2).
There are marginal notes to 54 pages. These are mainly in the form of one of "Bath", "Bristol", "Somerset" or "Essex", denoting when a plant was first identified in one of those locations. Without any further context it must be assumed that these locations had personal importance for the previous owner.
SKU: 2124382