SELECTARUM STIRPIUM AMERICANARUM HISTORIA IN QUA AD LINNAEANUM SYSTEMA

1763. CURIOUS FLORA OF THE WEST INDIES JACQUIN, Nikolaus Joseph, Baron von ("Nicolai Josephi Jacquin"). SELECTARUM STIRPIUM AMERICANARUM HISTORIA IN QUA AD LINNAEANUM SYSTEMA DETERMINATAE DESCRIPTAEQUE SISTUNTUR PLANTAE ILLAE, QUAS IN INSULIS MARTINICA, JAMAICA, DOMINGO, ALIIQUE, ET IN VICINIAE CONTINENTIS PARTE, OBSERVAVIT RARIORES; ADJECTIS ICONIBUS IN SOLO NATALI DELINEATIS. Vindobonae [Vienna], ex officina Krausiana, 1763. First edition. a-b4, c-c2, [1] - 284, [1] leaf, 184 engraved plates plus frontispiece: Frontis., plates 1-183, plate 37 with additional plate 37*. Complete. Six plates (86, 179-183) are double-page. Jacquin (1727-1818) studied medicine and was court physician to Empress Maria Theresa. He became enamored of the Schoenbrunn gardens, and was appointed by Francis I as a member of an expedition to the West Indies 1755-1759, gathering botanical specimens. This book, together with his Enumeratio systematica plantarum (1760) was among the first books using the Linnaean binomial system of taxonomy by someone other than Linnaeus or his pupils, and is the first recorded nomenclature of many of these plants. Linnaeus himself, upon hearing of the expedition, began a lifelong correspondence with Jacquin. Frontispiece to plates is an ornate design with a West Indian man and woman, holding a map of the West Indies (bordered by Mexico, N. Grenada and Florida), surrounded by Caribbean flora and seashells, with a bird in flight overhead. The banner above them reads "Selectarum Stirpium Americanarum Icones". quarter leather, spine mostly missing with modern gilt morocco spine label, front board and ffep detached, rear hinge cracked. Dampstaining to bottom edge throughout, not affecting most images. A few plates have neat light pencil annotations (binomial taxonomy). Ffep adhered to front pastedown at bottomn edge. Ex-library with minimal markings, some in ms. Johnston, Jr. 463; Nissen 979,Pritzel 362, Sabin 35521, As is.