The Dictionary of Garden Plants in Colour with House and Greenhouse Plants.

HAY, Roy and Patrick M. Synge.

$475.00

Item Number: 145563

London: The Arcadia Press, 1970.

Signed limited edition of this photographic plant dictionary. Quarto, bound in the original full crushed morocco by Zaehnsdorf of London with gilt titles to the spine in six compartments within raised bands, decorative gilt morocco inlays and gilt patterning to the front panel, gilt turn-ins and inner dentelles, marbled endpapers, all edges gilt, generously illustrated with over 2,000 full-color photographs of alpine and rock gardens, annuals and biennials, greenhouse and house, bulbs, perennial, trees and shrubs, and climbers and conifers. One of only two hundred and sixty-five copies signed by the authors on the limitation page, this is number 53. In near fine condition. Housed in the original clamshell case.

Roy Hay began to edit for various publications of the Royal Horticultural Society after the Second World War. In 1940 he was recruited by the Ministry of Agriculture and spent two years on their "Dig for Victory" campaign, designed to persuade people to cultivate their own gardens and plots to combat food shortages. Patrick Millington Synge was editor of the Horticultural Journal between 1945 and 1970 and was awarded the Victoria Medal of the Royal Horticultural Society in 1971. His many expeditions, including those to Nepal with Colville Barclay and Turkey with Rear-Admiral Paul Furse were documented in his 1973 book 'In Search of Flowers.'