Familiar Garden Flowers. Fourth Series,

London: Cassell & Company Circa 1885, 1885. 1st Edition . Hardcover. Near Fine. Xvi,160 Pp. Half Green Polished Calf, Spine Gilt, 5 Bands, Green Cloth On Boards, Brown Floral Endpapers, Top Edge Gilt. 36 Colored Plates, One Per Chapter, Plus B/W Illustrations At Beginning And End Of Each Chapter. Appears To Be First Printing, Although Undated, Circa 1885. Some Foxing To Pages And Plain Back Side Of Plates, But Color Illustrations Immaculate. Slight Wear At Corners. James Shirley Hibberd (1825 - 1890) Was One Of The Most Popular And Successful Gardening Writers Of The Victorian Era. He Was A Best-Selling Editor Of Three Gardening Magazines, Including Amateur Gardening, The Only 19Th-Century Gardening Magazine Still Being Published Today. He Wrote Over A Dozen Books On Gardening And Several More On Natural History And Related Subjects. He Promoted Town Gardening, Aquariums, Bee-Keeping, Vegetarianism, Water Recycling, Environmental Conservation And The Prevention Of Cruelty To Animals And Birds, All Before They Were Taken Up As 'Causes' In The Twentieth Century. Most Important Of All, He Taught And Promoted Amateur Gardening, Before It Was Acceptable Among The Gardening Establishment, And Helped To Found The Whole Consumer Industry In Amateur Gardening That We Have Today. (See Wikipedia For Full Article)