Carl Friedrich Philipp Martius: The Book of Palms / Das Buch der Palmen / Le livres des palmiers. 2010. 240 col. plates. 3 fold- outs. Hardcover. - 31.4 x 43.5 cm.

This is a reprint of all plates of the 3-volume monograph, with newcaptions and taxonomy. The text is not included in this reprint. Thevolume starts with a new introduction by H. W. Lack, and ends witha new index.On 15 December 1868, Carl Friedrich Philipp von Martius, Professor of Botany at the University of Munich and director of the Royal Botanic Garden, was carried to his grave in a coffin covered with fresh palm leaves. These were a reference to his groundbreaking Historia naturalis palmarum: opus tripartitum, published between 1823-1850. At the time, this encyclopedic treasury contained the sum of human knowledge on the topic, and included 240 exquisite chromolithographic illustrations, including landscape views of palm habitats and botanical dissections. This epic folio was based on Martius' expedition to Brazil and Peru with zoologist Johann Baptist von Spix, sponsored by King Maximilian I of Bavaria, to investigate natural history and tribal Indians. From 1817 to 1820 the pair travelled over 2,250 km (1,400 miles) throughout the Amazon Basin, the most species-rich palm region in the world, collecting and sketching specimens. In his epic work, Martius outlined the modern classification of palm, produced the first maps of palm biogeography, described all the palms of Brazil, and collated the sum of all known general of the palm family. For apart from his own collection of specimens and notes, Martius also wrote about the findings of others. Martius' folio is unusual in its inclusion of cross-sectioned diagrams, conveying the architecture of these mighty trees, which central Europeans would have found hard to imagine accurately.