A beautiful botanical volume containing wonderful colour plates and black and white illustrations, published at the height of Victorian Pteridomania, or 'Fern Madness', which saw ferns take centre stage as items for decoration, collection, and cultivation across the UK.
Shirley Hibberd was a prolific gardening writer, best-selling magazine editor, a campaigner against animal cruelty, and one of the first popular writers to introduce the concept of 'amateur gardening', making gardening an accessible hobby for the working classes.
In good to very good condition with a cracked front hinge, rear hinge just starting, light foxing, gently bumped corners, and an ink inscription to ffep. Bound in the stunning original green publisher's cloth with gilt-stamped botanicals and titles within a black bramble border, gilt details repeated on the spine, fully gilt block edge. 18.5 x 12 cm. vi, pp. 148.
