PROVENANCE :From the Library of Malcolm Lader. Professor Malcolm Lader OBE FMedSci, Emeritus Professor of Clinical Psychopharmacology at King’s College London, with Laders name and date in pencil on front paste down. 1881 Fifth Edition. Revised and Enlarged. Small 8vo, 154, (14 advertisements) pp, with a coloured folding frontispiece map-torn and repaired, 24 fine coloured plates showing several different plants per plate, interleaved throughout with blanks which have been heavily annotated in purple pencil, some further annotation to text, all of a high scientific standard concerning herbal preparation presumed to be by a student or Lader?. Rear free endpaper partly stuck to paste down, corners a little bumped, original gilt titled cloth. Plates beautifully preserved in vibrant colour. Lader has been interested in herbals for 20 years. He admits however, more for the beautiful illustrations than the content. “I hope that some of you will take the opportunity to visit the Fellows Room and perhaps share my enthusiasm for the artistic rather than the scientific merits of these venerable tomes. Early herbals have hand illustrations like medieval manuscripts, such as breviaries. Later, woodcuts and metal engravings were used. These herbals became very expensive to produce and were often traded between printers, perpetuating their inaccuracies. Herbals were often hand-coloured at extra cost using watercolours. One of the attractive aspects of these illustrations is that, being in a book, they were rarely exposed to light.'' Plates beautifully preserved in vibrant colour.