A Manual of the Flowering Plants and Ferns of the Transvaal with Swaziland and South Africa

2 vols
1926

By Joseph Burtt Davy (1870 - 1940)
In early 1903, Joseph Burtt Davy was appointed botanist and agrostologist with the newly founded Transvaal Department of Agriculture. Burtt Davy wasted no time in starting a collection of Transvaal plants, a process by which he acquired an intimate knowledge of the subject. These first specimens came from Meintjieskop, Irene and a trip to the western Transvaal – at the time of his retirement in 1913, his collected specimens numbered 14,000.

Publication Details: Although intended as a four-part series, only two volumes were completed before Burtt Davy’s death.

Part I (1926): Covers Pteridophyta to Bombacaceae.

Part II (1932): Covers Malvaceae to Umbelliferae.

Contributors: The work was illustrated by W.E. Trevithick and Alice Bolton Davy.

Significance: It was the first comprehensive list to include plants from Swaziland (now Eswatini) and was based on extensive collections made during Burtt Davy's tenure at the Transvaal Department of Agriculture.

Sellotape residue on wrappers.
Some foxing.
Rebound in leather.
Each vol: 145mm x 203mm

P1,500