Flora Hertfordiensis: or catalogue of plants found in the County of Hertford, with the stations of the rarer species. First edition. William Pamplin. & Stephen Austin. London. & Hertford. 1849. Octavo. xlv, 390pp, (1) Instructions to the Binder. Coloured folding map. Half crushed morocco, green cloth. Spine (a little sunned) in six compartments with raised banding, gilt rules and lettering. Green marbled endpapers. Spotting to free endpapers. Slightly rubbed to corners. Engraved bookplate of Giana Mount Stephen, (which combines the aesthetic of armorial and floral) Lady Giana Mount Stephen (1864-1933) DBE of Brocket Hall, Hatfield, Hertfordshire. Born Georgiana Tufnell, Lady Giana was a childhood friend of Queen Mary and was Lady-in-Waiting to both Queen Mary and her mother the Duchess of Teck. Giana married the Scottish born Canadian businessman and philanthropist Lord Mount Stephen (the richest man in Canada: Canadian Pacific Railway and the Bank of Montreal). "Both Queen Mary and Lady Mount Stephen loved to collect art and historical artefacts, often swapping and refining their collections" (Royal Collection Trust). Lady Giana bequeathed Queen Mary two diamond necklaces, one being the Tessiers Diamond Riviere necklace, known as the Lady Mount Stephen necklace, worn by Princess Margaret on her wedding day, and which was sold at Christie’s in 2006 for £993,600.00. Another book from her collection, bearing the same bookplate and evidence of her interest in the field of plant rarities: Buchoz. Herbier colorié de l'Amérique. Représentant les plantes les plus rares et les plus curieuses, qui se trouvent dans cette nouvelle partie du Monde sold at Christie’s in 2002 for $14,340.00. Brocket Hall, the residence of Lady Giana Mount Stephen features a number of times in the printed text of this volume. Rev. Robert Holden Webb (1806-1880) Rev. William Higgins Coleman (1812-1863) The Flora Hertfordiensis is the first instance in which a county flora was distributed into river-basin districts. NOTE: This item is from a recently acquired private library collection of British Floras which we are currently cataloguing for sale.