The Forests and Forest Flora of The Colony of the Cape of Good Hope

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The Forests and Forest Flora of The Colony of the Cape of Good Hope, is a botanical reference book written and illustrated by Thomas Robertson Sim, and published in 1907 by Taylor & Henderson of Aberdeen. At the time he was the Conservator of Forests of Natal, and had been the District Forest Officer in King William's Town, bringing a wealth of experience to the creation of this monumental work. Sim had previously written a great many books such as "Handbook of Kaffrarian Ferns", "The Ferns of South Africa" and "Botanical Observations on the Forests of Eastern Pondoland". He was a Fellow of both the Linnaean Society and the Royal Horticultural Society, with sterling credentials for producing this extensive flora of the Cape.

Thomas Robertson Sim South African botanist

Thomas Robertson Sim was a botanist, bryologist, botanical artist and Conservator of Forests in Natal, best known for his monumental work The Forests and Forest Flora of The Colony of the Cape of Good Hope which appeared in 1907. He was the eldest of five children of John Sim (1824-1901), a noted bryologist and Isabella Thomson Robertson (1823-).

Aberdeen City and council area in Scotland

Aberdeen is a city in northeast Scotland. It is Scotland's third most populous city, one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas and the United Kingdom's 37th most populous built-up area, with an official population estimate of 196,670 for the city of Aberdeen and 228,800 for the local council area.

King Williams Town Place in Eastern Cape, South Africa

King William's Town is a town in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa along the banks of the Buffalo River. The town is about 60 kilometres North West of the Indian Ocean port of East London. The town is part of the Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipality in the Eastern Cape.

Hippobromus alata Hippobromus alata00.jpg
Hippobromus alata
Hippobromus alata Hippobromus alata01.jpg
Hippobromus alata

Format and Content

The book is of large quarto format (240mm x 300mm) and consists of 365 pages of text followed by 160 plates of line drawings by the author. Chapters are as follows:

Quarto paper format

Quarto is a book or pamphlet produced from full "blanksheets", each of which is printed with eight pages of text, four to a side, then folded twice to produce four leaves. The leaves are then trimmed along the folds to produce eight book pages. Each printed page presents as one-fourth size of the full blanksheet.


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