RHEEDE VAN DRAKENSTEIN (Henricus van). Hortus indicus malabaricus. Amsterdam, Joannis van Someren & Joannis van Dyck, 1678-1679. 2 vol. in-folio mounted on tabs - I: engraved title-frontispiece, (8) ff. bw. including title, 110 pp. 57 double-page spreads, (1) index; II: (4) ff. bw. including title, 110 pp. 56 double-page spreads, (1) index; brown calf, spine ribbed and decorated (B. ép.). Nissen, BBI, 1625. First edition of one of the first major works on the flora of Asia. These are the first two volumes of this superb encyclopaedia of Malabar botany. They contain 113 superb black plates of plants and fruits with captions in Latin, Malabar, Arabic and Sanskrit. Published in 12 volumes between 1678 and 1703, this encyclopaedia describes more than 750 plants from this Indian region, and includes 794 plates. Henricus van Rheede tot Drakenstein was Governor of the Dutch Malabar (a region of south-west India (Kerala) and a former district of the British East India Company) from 1669 to 1676. From the libraries of D. Gesenius (engraved armorial bookplate and handwritten bookplate on verso of title I) and Comte de Kerchove de Denterghem (engraved armorial bookplate). Binding stained and rubbed, 3 headpieces missing, corners dulled; I, pl. 40, fold; II: dark paper, stains and transfers.