LOUDON, Jane Webb (1807-58). The Ladies' Flower-Garden of Ornamental Annuals, London, [1849], 4to, 50 fine hand-coloured lithographed botanical plates by Loudon (some spotting and staining), contemporary green half morocco (worn). Second edition.

LOUDON, Jane Webb (1807-58).  The Ladies' Flower-Garden of Ornamental Annuals ... Second Edition. London: William S. Orr and Co., [n.d. but preface dated 1849]. 4to (288 x 232mm). Half title, 50 fine hand-coloured lithographed botanical plates by Jane Webb Loudon (some plates bound out of sequence but all present, some light spotting and staining but plates generally clean). Contemporary green half morocco gilt, marbled endpapers, gilt edges (worn, heavily rubbed and scuffed, lettering-pieces torn with loss). Provenance: James [?]Jerman, [?]Exon (pencil signature on front free endpaper). "The copyright having passed into other hands, the present and second edition of this important work is now issued. In it much new and valuable matter has been incorporated, the vast amount of general knowledge lately accumulated has been carefully collated and added to its pages, former errors have been corrected, and, as it is hoped, an accurate and extensive view of the state of botanical science is presented to the public" (from the author's preface). The second edition also had two additional plates which did not appear in the first, which was published in [?]1840. Loudon wrote other works in the same series on perennials, bulbous, and greenhouse plants. A little known, and completely irrelevant fact, about the author is that she was also a pioneer of the science fiction genre: her first published prose work, before she turned to botany and horticulture, was The Mummy!: Or, A Tale of the Twenty-Second Century (London, 1827), the first story in the English-language to feature a reanimated Egyptian mummy. See Kramer Women of Flowers pp.120-8; cf. Nissen BBI 1234; Pritzel 5632; Sitwell Great Flower Books 1700-1900 115.