Flowers of the Brazilian Forests

Margaret Mee, Tryon Gallery

London: The Tryon Gallery, in association with George Rainbird, 1968.

[Orchidology] Limited ed. of 500 copies. Folio, 54 cm. Bound in quarter morocco by Zaehnsdorf. Hardcover in slip case. Good binding and cover. Clean, unmarked pages.  [79] pages, 32 plates color illustrations, 5 color maps. Many of the flowers documented by Mee are now extinct.   "Unlike Amazon botanical artists before her, Margaret worked entirely from living plants. Her fifteen expeditions into the interior, mostly to Amazonia, involved travelling and living under the most primitive conditions. She would draw at night by torchlight to capture rare nocturnal flowers, and this immediacy gave her paintings an accuracy, depth, and colour unrivalled by her predecessors. Her travels coincided with the beginning of the commercial exploitation of the forest, and she expressed her fury at the damage caused to the land and its peoples." (DNB)