Prain, D.
The Species of Dalbergia of South-Eastern Asia.
Calcutta [Kolkata], Bengal Secretariat Press [for the Royal Botanical Garden, Calcutta], 1904. Folio (37.0 x 29.0 cm). 120 pp.; 91 lithographed plates. Original portfolio with black half cloth over printed boards. Handwritten label on the spine.
Rare, original edition and part of the famous Annals of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Calcutta. The Royal Botanic Garden in Calcutta is the oldest Asian botanical garden, founded by William Roxburgh in 1793. In 1887, its superintendent, George King, started publication of the Annals. This is the complete Volume X(1)." Dalbergia is a large genus of small to medium-size trees, shrubs and lianas in the pea family, Fabaceae, subfamily Faboideae. It was recently assigned to the informal monophyletic Dalbergia clade (or tribe): the Dalbergieae. The genus has a wide distribution, native to the tropical regions of Central and South America, Africa, Madagascar and southern Asia. Many species of Dalbergia are important timber trees, valued for their decorative and often fragrant wood, rich in aromatic oils. The most famous of these are the rosewoods, so-named because of the smell of the timber when cut, but several other valuable woods are yielded by the genus" (Wikipedia). Slight wear to boards, otherwise a very good, clean copy. Nissen BBI, 1559.