A Plant Record for the Use of Students of Botany
Iowa City: [1892, 1894]. Small quarto. Spine ends slightly chipped; light wear to edges and spine cloth. Occasional small patches of staining; light tanning. Very good. Item #1592
"Revised edition," published in 1894 by University of Iowa botany professor T.H. McBride, of a workbook for students of the subject to record their plant finds and observations. Each set of facing pages provide space to record a detailed description of the plant and its parts, its fertilization methods, its classification, and two small boxes in which to draw a "plan of flower" and a "detail drawing." This example is just over half completed by William H. Hunter of Johnson County, Iowa, with his contemporary ownership inscription on the front free endpaper. In all, Hunter records twenty-five complete plants records in a highly legible hand, although his artistry leaves something to be desired. His botanical observations took him around Iowa City and its environs in May 1894, collecting sour cherry trees in orchards, shepherd's puss in streets and yards, trillium in "shady wet places," violets "in the woods," and dandelions "everywhere." While this work is described as the "revised edition," it is only iteration located by OCLC (one copy at the University of Iowa). An interesting record of amateur botany in late 19th-century Iowa.
Price: $200.00