PERRIN, Ida Southwell

British Flowering Plants

      PERRIN, Ida Southwell and BOULGER, George S. British Flowering Plants... Reproduced from Drawings by Mrs. Henry Perrin, with Detailed Descriptive Notes and an Introduction by Professor Boulger. London: Bernard Quaritch, 1914. Four volumes. Tall, thick quarto, original white linen gilt, bevelled boards, top edges gilt, uncut. $4300. Limited first edition, number 714 of 1,000 copies, of this illustrated history of flowering plants organized "in relation to one another by descent," with 300 color plates from watercolors by Ida Southwell (Robins) Perrin-this copy inscribed by Queen Mary, "For Sir Clive Wigram from George R.I. [in the king's hand] & Mary R, Buckingham Palace, Christmas 1933." "We are concerned here only with the highest, that is, the most organized of the groups of Flowering Plants, and of these alone there are some 1,860 species in the British Isles... Obviously, therefore, our drawings, representing only about 300 species, are merely a selection; but in choosing those to be included, an endeavor has been made to render the series as representative as possible, excluding, however, as perhaps less ornamental or less suited to water-color sketches, the Grasses, Sedges, and some minor Families of water-plants... It has been found possible by a careful scrutiny of all the external structural characters to arrange them in an order approximately natural, so as to express to some extent what is apparently their genetic affinity, or actual relationship to one another by descent." Nissen 1509. The recipient of this royal gift was George V's equerry and assistant private secretary, a dedicated gardener and fellow of the Royal Horticultural Society. Wigram was responsible for converting the moat garden at Windsor Castle into a botanical showpiece. A beautiful set in fine condition with extraordinary provenance.