Folio. 44 chromolithographed plates after Sinclair by Leighton Brothers. (Light spotting to title-page, some plates with marginal wear or soiling, plate 32 with closed tear at upper margin.) Original gilt-lettered pictorial olive cloth, edges gilt (fore-corners bumped, light rubbing along joints with some darkening or spotting to upper cover near spine, hinges reinforced).

FIRST EDITION. According to H. St. John in Pacific Science, 1954: "This is the first book with colour pictures of Hawaiian flowering plants... Even today it has more colour plates of Hawaiian plants than any other book." "Published in the form of a typical Victorian 'floral album,' Isabella Sinclair's series of watercolors was by far the most luxurious guide to Hawaiian flora to have been published up to that time, and FOR SUMPTUOUSNESS IT REMAINS UNSURPASSED" (Don R. Severson, Michael D. Horikawa and Jennifer Saville, Finding Paradise: Island Art in Private Collections, Honolulu, 2002, p. 178). Great Flower Books, p.139; Nissen BBI 1848.