JAUME SAINT-HILAIRE (Jean-Henri). Traité des arbrisseaux et des arbustes cultivés en France et en pleine terre. Paris: chez l'auteur, 1825.
2 volumes, 4to (279 × 185 mm), T1 - 27 pp., [1-88 pl.], T2 - [89-176 pl.]. Contemporary (slightly later) green half-morocco with corners, spines elaborately gilt in compartments, gilt titles, untrimmed.
Superb large-paper copy on thick paper.
Major botanical work, intended to establish a systematic knowledge of shrubs and bushes cultivated in France, enabling the reader to identify species, understand their natural habitats, history, uses and cultivation.
Illustrated with 176 plates printed in colour and finished by hand, all in fine, fresh condition.
Volume I opens with a 27-page preface by André Thouin (1747–1824), professor at the Jardin du Roi (later the Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle), devoted to the culture of trees and shrubs. The work covers species from Abricotier to Halésia in the first volume, and from Jasmin to Viorne in the second.
Provenance: from the celebrated library of Árpád Plesch (1889–1975), with his bookplate.
A fine and well-preserved example of one of the most beautifully illustrated French botanical books of the early 19th century.
