London: Darton and Co., not dated. Octavo. 170 x 104 mm. xvii, 158pp (20). Externally smart with a little rubbing and bumping to the extremities. Tear to cloth at top. Spine slightly faded with a few marks to boards. Small splits in the cloth to the head of the spine. Front hinge just starting but firm. Internally, firmly bound. Pages are very bright with the odd small spot. Light spotting to the endpapers with minor age toning.

A striking second edition of this illustrated study of algology originally published in 1848. With a colour frontispiece and colour vignette to the title page and tissue guard between. Ten plates, five hand-coloured. Striped brown moire covered boards with variegated black horizontal stripes and stamped decorative framing and gilt marine illustration at center. 20 pages of adverts at rear.

Marine Botanist is an early book on the study of algology, written by Isabella Gifford, a Welsh-born botanist and algaeologist. Like many women science writers of the Victorian era, Gifford aimed to make the topic as accessible as possible, as she herself is believed to have been largely self-taught. She explains in her preface “The object of this little Work is to afford to those who are desirous of studying the Marine Algae short and scientific descriptions of the commonest kinds, given in as simple words as possible.” She credits Dr. William Henry Harvey’s work of the same year, “Manual of the British Algae” as a source as well as Dr Robert Kaye Greville’s work alongside her own discoveries. Gifford’s work was recognized in her lifetime, and this title was well-received upon publication, and some of the seaweed samples she collected are housed at the Bolton Museum and St Andrews University. A lovely copy.