The Flowering Plants, Grasses, Sedges and Ferns of Great Britain, and their Allies The Club Mosses, Pepperworts and Horsetails (Six volumes)

Not dated but published 1870s. Complete in six volumes. Coloured endpapers. viii, 288pp, plus 47 plates, of which 46 in colour; viii, 355pp plus 39 colour plates; ix, [1], 410pp, plus 53 colour plates; viii,328 pp plus 53 colour plates; viii, 368pp, plus 50 colour plates; x, 136, [2], 137-319pp plus 76 colour plates. All six volumes bound in original green cloth with gilt and black inlay embossed decorations, gilt lettering. All edges gilt. 8vo. Boards are somewhat worn at edges, corners rounded, a few cracks around spine edges and fraying at spine tips, but still solid and attractive. All plates exquisite, bright and fresh. A couple of instances of strained gutters but remains firmly bound and square. Ex-library with light markings. Occasional faint spotting. The backstrip on Volume One is partially detached. Pratt was the leading proponent of botanical art in the Victorian age, serving to popularise both the study of botany and the practice of botanical drawing. These six volumes make up her magnum opus, hugely popular and influential in her time, it remained the authoritative study of the topic until well into the 20th century. The first five volumes were first published between 1855 and 1866, with the last volume, which features grasses in particular, being added in 1873. This edition, which is complete in six volumes, was published shortly after that. The hand coloured plates are exquisitely beautiful and botanically correct. They did much to popularise the art of botanical drawing.