First edition with variant title page, of William Curtis's magisterial survey of the flora of London and the southern counties of England: the earliest English flora illustrated with coloured plates to be in any way approaching comprehensive.

This issue has a variant title page, with an imprint reading '... by the Author, at his Botanic-Garden, Lambeth-Marsh...'. These volumes were assembled from spare sheets for general sale rather than for subscribers, explaining why the preparatory pages were not included. Another example of this variation is in the Thordarson collection in Madison, Wisconsin. The portrait frontispiece was engraved by F. Sansom, who also contributed to the Flora Londinensis. It was published in memoriam in 1800 by Thomas Curtis a year after William Curtis's death, in Curtis's Botanical Magazine, then subsequently added to this volume.

The work, intended to portray all the native plants within a ten-mile radius of London, was issued irregularly in 75 numbers between May 1775 and 1798. However, Curtis's ambitious enterprise received little encouragement and was cut short for lack of subscriptions. According to Henrey's account, no more than 300 of any single number are believed to have been printed.

Curtis's reputation as a botanist was such that he was made the Praefectus Horti (or Director) of the Society of Apothecaries at the Chelsea Physic Garden in 1772. The following year he established a botanical garden for the cultivation and study of native British plants at Bermondsey. This garden was to move twice: first to Lambeth Marsh and later Brompton. He cultivated some 6,000 species from all over the world in his garden, including medicinal and culinary herbs, English wild flowers, trees and shrubs. For an annual subscription of a guinea patrons could visit Curtis's garden and attend the lectures he gave there, and for an extra guinea a year they could also have a share in the plants and seeds from the garden.

First edition with variant title page; 2 vols, folio (46 x 27 cm); 435 hand-coloured plates (on 432pp.), bound without list of subscribers, vol. I dedication and catalogue of plants in the environs of Settle, minor spotting and toning; contemporary calf rebacked to style, triple gilt fillets, marbled endpapers and edges, some wear and scuffing of the boards, edges and corners conserved, a very good set.

Cleveland (Herbal), 532; Dunthorne 87; Great Flower Books (1990) p. 88; Henrey 595; Hunt 650; Nissen (BBI), 439; Pritzel 2004; Stafleu & Cowan TL2 1286.