A Garden of Flowers (Dover Pictorial Archives) Book

Hortus Floridus, a work by seventeenth-century engraver Crispin van de Pass, is generally regarded to be a masterpiece. Filled with more than 100 beautiful, full-page plates of floral favorites, the book has long been a source of delight for horticulturists. Dover's excellent reproduction in one volume of the two-volume facsimile edition published in the early twentieth century will equally captivate enthusiastic gardeners. Book One contains a "very lively and true Description of the Flowers of the Springe," among them narcissus, hyacinths, crown imperials, tulips, auriculas, and daffodils. Book Two describes flowers of summer, autumn and winter--peonies, carnations, pinks, roses, dianthus, sweet william, mallows, lilies, gladiolas, clematis, and more. For each volume, noted botanist Eleanour Sinclair Rohde has written an engaging and informative preface to the text--rendered in charming calligraphic style--that describes the leaves, flower, seed pods, and root of each blossom. Lovingly and painstakingly prepared, A Garden of Flowers not only provides botanists and gardeners with an accurate reference, it will also delight flower lovers and devotees of fine art. Unabridged republication in one volume of Hortus Floridus, First and Second Books, originally published by The Cresset Press Limited, London, 1928 and 1929. 104 black and white illustrations.Read More