Folio. French text, 183 pp., 1 double page map, 11 plates of which 2 in colour, each plate has a protective tissue with its legend, contemporary red half-chagrin with corners, title gilt on upper cover, smooth spine, all edges gilt, biblio, occasional light foxing, otherwise copy in very good condition, Georges Bridel, Lausanne, Rare first edition, 1882.

Synopsis

The long travelogue through the Mediterranean basin (Italy, Cairo, The Little Desert, Judea, Syria, Cyprus…) is followed by a detailed enumeration of the species collected with important bibliographical notes.
William Barbey (1842–1914) was a Swiss botanist and politician. He studied science at the Academy in Geneva and then engineering at the École Centrale de Paris. From 1862 to 1869, he worked in New York City. He married Caroline, the daughter of the prominent botanist Edmond Boissier. After his marriage, he studied botany and undertook botanical research in Spain, Palestine, Greece and Asia Minor. In 1885, he founded the publication Bulletin de l’Herbier Boissier, which in 1910 became the Bulletin de la Société Botanique de Genève.