[MARSHALL Humphry)].
Arbustrum Americanum: The American Grove, or, an Alphabetical catalogue of forest trees and shrubs, natives of the American United States [...] containing the particular distinguishing characters of each genus, with plain, simple and familiar
"THE FIRST TRULY INDIGENOUS BOTANICAL ESSAY PUBLISHED IN THE WESTERN HEMISPHERE"
An excellent copy of Marshall’s magnum opus with important evidence for its use ‘in the field’.
Marshall’s ‘catalogue’ sold only a handful of copies in the first few months after publication, but the work was subsequently popular in Europe and was translated into French and German. Marshall hoped that his work would spur other botanists into eventually compiling a complete botanical record of the United States, he claimed that such a study ‘cannot be compiled at once, or by one man; but it is the duty of everyone to contribute what he can towards it’.
The work tends to concentrate, but not exclusively, on the flora and fauna of the American south. A careful annotation on the blank leaf next to Magnolia grandiflora’ records that the ‘boundary line between N & S Carolina [has] the most northern settlement of M.G’. Another hand (in pencil) also appears to have ticked or marked each entry in the catalogue as they have observed it.
Perhaps most surprising though are two specimens which have been carefully pressed between the leaves on which their corresponding entries appear.