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BARTON, William Paul Crillon (1786-1856)
Vegetable Materia Medica of the United States; or Medical Botany: containing a botanical, general, and medical history, of medicinal plants indigenous to the United States
Philadelphia: M.Carey & Son, 1817 - 1818. 2 volumes, quarto (10 1/2 x 8 1/4 inches). Half-titles, 'To Subscribers' leaf at end of vol.I, 3pp. subscribers' list at back of vol.II. 50 hand-coloured engraved plates (1 folding) by Tanner, Vallance & Kerny & Co. (41), J.Boyd (6) or J.G.Warnicke (2) after Barton, the hand colouring executed by Barton, and others. (Lacking 'To the binder' leaf from the back of vol.II as usual). Expertly bound to style in red morocco over contemporary marbled paper-covered boards, the flat spines divided into six compartments by double gilt fillets, lettered in the second compartment and numbered in the fourth in gilt.
A particularly fine copy of this important and scarce American flora medica from the most important American botanist of his day: a good copy of the coloured issue with plates coloured by the author personally. A classic of American botany and of early colour-plate books, from Philadelphia's heyday as centre of the American scientific world.
First edition of both volumes, in unusually clean condition. Barton describes his plan for the present work in his 'preliminary observations': 'The author of the following pages has undertaken the task of drawing and describing all the important plants of a medicinal character, native to the United States, which are known; and also of figuring and describing many never before noticed for medical properties. In all the drawings... the greatest accuracy will be studied; and with a view to render the work as correct as possible, the author encounters the laborious task of colouring all the plates with his own hand. Since faithful colouring is nearly as important in a work of this nature, as correct drawings, he trusts that the usefulness of the undertaking will be enhanced by this part of his labour. In the history of the plants nothing will be omitted, which can render the work interesting.' (vol.I, p.xiv). In the end Barton was somewhat overwhelmed by the number of subscribers who signed up and in the second volume and he noted that he was "obliged to have recourse to the assistance of others" as far as the colouring of the plates was concerned. Such was the interest that "even with the assistance, sometimes of six persons, he could not supply the coloured copies as rapidly as the publishers orders called for" (vol.II, p.xv)
Barton, the nephew of Benjamin Smith Barton, was appointed a Naval surgeon in 1809 and remained on the Navy's list throughout his life (he was buried with full military honours in Philadelphia in 1856). "In 1815 Barton was chosen professor of botany at the University of Pennsylvania, charming many with his light-hearted herborizing trips along the Schuykill and by his lectures which were, contrary to the bookish times, demonstrated in his well-stocked conservatory" (DAB). His botanical publications, which appeared over a relatively short span of nine years, began with his Flora Philadelphicae Prodromus (1815) and culminated with the present work and his A Flora of North America, Illustrated by coloured figures drawn from nature (1820-1824).
Austin 149; Bennett p.9; BM (NH) I, p.105; Dunthorne 25; Great Flower Books (1990) p.48; McGrath p.12; MacPhail Benjamin Smith Barton and William Paul Crillon Barton 15; Meisel III,377; Nissen BBI 85; Pritzel 444; Sabin 3863; Stafleu & Cowan 324.
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#18990 $12,000.00 
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© 2002-2005 Donald A. Heald
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