Details
WYATT, Mary. Algae Danmonienses, or Dried Specimens of Marine Plants, principally collected in Devonshire. Torquay: Cockrem for the author, [1834-1840].
5 volumes including supplement, 4° (302 x 242mm). Letterpress title to each volume and indices to volumes IV and V, 544 specimens representing 236 species of seaweed, either mounted on paper sheets pasted to the page or attached to pages by means of paper strips, each species with letterpress label pasted beneath. (A little light marginal spotting and offsetting.) Original morocco backed boards, letterpress labels on spines (label of vol. I damaged, boards of vol. IV lightly dampstained).
A FINE COPY OF AN EXTREMELY RARE WORK. Only one copy appears in British auction records for this century (sold in 1927 from the botanical library of the Rev. S. Gasking). It is referred to by Pritzel in his entry for William Harvey's Manual of British Algae, 1841, a work cited by Wyatt in the labels to the supplement, and there is a copy in the BMC NH, but the work appears to be otherwise unknown to bibliographers. Mary Wyatt was a "dealer in shells" in Torquay, and the sole supplier of the work, which originally cost #1 for each volume. Each of the first four volumes contains approximately 50 different species, and the supplement, which includes examples from the coast of Cornwall, as well as from Devonshire, contains a further 36 species. The printed labels give each specimen's name and number, the classification from Hooker's British Flora and from other works on British algae, as well as a brief description of the habitat and locality where the seaweed is found, and an indication of its rarity. Several of those included at the end of volume IV are tentatively described as new species; many more are described as "rare", "very rare" or "extremely rare" and it is perhaps reasonable to suppose that, with the increase of pollution in the area, some of these species are now extinct. BMC NH Supplement p. 1461. (5)
5 volumes including supplement, 4° (302 x 242mm). Letterpress title to each volume and indices to volumes IV and V, 544 specimens representing 236 species of seaweed, either mounted on paper sheets pasted to the page or attached to pages by means of paper strips, each species with letterpress label pasted beneath. (A little light marginal spotting and offsetting.) Original morocco backed boards, letterpress labels on spines (label of vol. I damaged, boards of vol. IV lightly dampstained).
A FINE COPY OF AN EXTREMELY RARE WORK. Only one copy appears in British auction records for this century (sold in 1927 from the botanical library of the Rev. S. Gasking). It is referred to by Pritzel in his entry for William Harvey's Manual of British Algae, 1841, a work cited by Wyatt in the labels to the supplement, and there is a copy in the BMC NH, but the work appears to be otherwise unknown to bibliographers. Mary Wyatt was a "dealer in shells" in Torquay, and the sole supplier of the work, which originally cost #1 for each volume. Each of the first four volumes contains approximately 50 different species, and the supplement, which includes examples from the coast of Cornwall, as well as from Devonshire, contains a further 36 species. The printed labels give each specimen's name and number, the classification from Hooker's British Flora and from other works on British algae, as well as a brief description of the habitat and locality where the seaweed is found, and an indication of its rarity. Several of those included at the end of volume IV are tentatively described as new species; many more are described as "rare", "very rare" or "extremely rare" and it is perhaps reasonable to suppose that, with the increase of pollution in the area, some of these species are now extinct. BMC NH Supplement p. 1461. (5)