This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 10/12/2023
[SPECIMEN ALBUM]. [BABINGTON, Charles Cardale (1808-1895), his copy]. -- GARDNER, George. Musci Britannici, or Pocket Herbarium of British Mosses. Glasgow: Allan & Ferguson, 1836.
8vo. Approximately 277 specimens on 35 leaves. Original dark olive straight-grain roan, fold-over flap to fore-edge (spine gently sunned with light wear at ends, front joint cracked following title-page). Provenance: Charles Cardale Babington (ownership signature on front pastedown and slip pasted on front free endpaper with his signature and notation).
Babington was an English botanist, archaeologist, and Fellow of the Royal Society. He wrote numerous works on botany and was editor of the publication Annals and Magazine of Natural History in 1842. As a student at Cambridge, he once argued with his fellow classmate, Charles Darwin, over who should have the pick of beetle specimens from a local dealer. He later obtained the chair of botany at the University of Cambridge in 1861. His herbarium and library are conserved by his alma mater.