Chloris protogaea : Beiträge zur Flora der Vorwelt by UNGER, FRANZ - [1841]- 1847

Leipzig: Commision with Engelmann, [1841]- 1847. Contemporary half leather on marble boards. Very Good. Folio. (32.0 x 26.0 cm). Modern calf spine with gilt labeling, contemporary marble and calf corners. Collation: cx, 149, [1]pp.+ 50 (3 double page; 4 folding) tinted lithographed plates. Some foxing and spotting to text and plates.

This is one of the rarest and most beautiful executed paleontological works by one of the pioneers of paleobotany. Franz Unger was Professor of Botany and Zoology in Graz. The Choloris, his major publication, contains more than 120 new species of tertiary plants which are described, illustrated and classified under known genra of the time. Unger was one of the major contributors to the field of paleontology. He hypothesized that (then unknown) combinations of simple elements inside a plant cell determines plant heredity and greatly influenced the experiments of his student gregor Johann Mendel. Unger was a pioneer in documenting the relationships between soil and plants (1836). One of the rarest and most beautifully executed (50 lith pl.) paleontological works by pioneer of paleobotany (Safleu & Cowan 15.595; Nissen BBI, 2024; DSB).