How to Know the Ferns: A Guide to the Names, Haunts, and Habits of Our Common Ferns
New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1899.
Second Edition. Hardcover. "No other plants know so well how to choose their haunts....Where the air is purer and the world wider and life more beautiful than we had fancied, these wild, graceful things are most at home..." Follow Frances Theodora into the haunts and hollows where the wild ferns grow through the lush pages of this 1899 introduction to pteridology. This fern-filled guide to the great outdoors is written by a woman, Frances Theodora Parsons (1861–1952), author of the first field guide to North American wildflowers, illustrated in over 75 plates and vignettes by two women, Parsons' dear friend Marion Satterlee and her own sister, the artist Alice Josephine Smith (1859–1909), and with its vivid, vital, and inviting binding designed by a woman, the great Art Nouveau book designer Margaret Armstrong (who herself later penned the first comprehensive guide to the wild flowers of the American West).
8" X 5 1/2". xiv, 215pp, plus publisher's ads. This beautiful publisher's cloth binding is the work of Margaret Armstrong, with her monogram to upper right. Bound in full bark brown cloth over boards, with ferns stamped in green and climbing up both upper board and spine, lettered in gilt. Mild wear to binding, with gentle edgewear, scattered rubbing, and lean to darkened spine. Previous owner's name, dated 1900, to front free endpaper. Binding is sound. Pages are clean and unmarked. Illustrated in tissue-guarded frontispiece and 5 photographic plates, 42 plates, and 28 vignettes. Very good. Item #12903
Price: $150.00