BOTANY. - William CURTIS. The Botanical Magazine; or, Flower-Garden Displayed. London: Fry and Couchman, 1787-1827. 54 vols. in 29. 8vo (228 x 134mm.) 2749 hand-coloured plates, including 218 folding, index leaves, engraved portrait frontispiece, title-pages, errata leaf bound-in, 'General Index' bound with vol. 42. (Browning, some offsetting, occasional spotting, small closed holes at plates 1611 and 1315, lacking 3 plates, numbers 69, 539 and 2466.) Contemporary half calf over marbled paper-covered boards, red and black morocco lettering pieces to the spines (rubbing to extremities, lacking red lettering piece to one volume, some scuffing and rubbing). Note: Curtis's Botanical Magazine is the greatest and longest-running series of botanical magazines. It was immediately successful, not only for its plates by distinguished artists of the time, but for the text descriptions themselves which take the reader on a journey in the history of botany. Provenance: Gordon Castle (name-plate to front pastedowns). [Nissen BB1 2350; Great Flower Books p. 156] (29).