Author: Ball, J.
Title: Spicilegium florae Maroccanae.
Description: London, Taylor & Francis [for The Linnean Society], [1877]-1878. 8vo (22.0 x 14.1 cm). [ii], 492 pp. [numbered 281-772] 20 lithographed plates [numbered IX-XXVIII]. Original full grained olive cloth; spine with gilt title. Yellow endpapers. = Important early and well-illustrated flora of Marocco. This is an offprint, with new title page and preface, from The Journal of the Linnean Society - Botany, volume 16. Dedicated (in Latin) by the author to the most influential 19th century botanist, and closest friend and ally of Charles Darwin, Joseph Dalton Hooker (1817-1911). With, mounted on the front pastedown, a handwritten sheet on Dr. Hooker's Maroccan lichens - "named by Leighton" and including localities. John Ball (1818-1889) was an Irish politician, naturalist and Alpine traveller. "In 1858 Ball stood for County Limerick, but was defeated, and he then gave up politics and devoted himself to natural history. He was the first president of the Alpine Club (founded 1857), and it is for his work as an alpinist that he is chiefly remembered. His well-known Alpine Guide (London, 1863-1868) was the result of innumerable climbs and journeys and of careful observation recorded in a clear and often entertaining style. Among his accomplishments, he was the first to climb a major Dolomites peak (Monte Pelmo in 1857). He also travelled in Morocco (1871) and South America (1882), and recorded his observations in books which were recognised as having scientific value (Wikipedia). The present work is based on his observations made in Morocco. Leighton, mentioned above, probably is the British bryologist and lichenologist William Allport Leighton (1805-1889). Uncut. Spine sunned, frayed at ends and a bit along the hinges; some foxing in the lower margins of the text; some dampstaining in the lowermost part of the endpapers and index gutter, but not very obtrusive. Rare. Stafleu and Cowan, 288.

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