June Berry. Mespilus arborea. by NORTH AMERICAN SYLVA) Bessa (illus). Gabriel (engraved by) - No date. Ca 1850s.

Philadelphia.. No date. Ca 1850s.. Color stipple engraving with added handcolor, image 7 3/4 x 5 on sheet 10 3/8 x 6 1/2 inches. Faint spot to upper right edge; very good condition. Paper is white. This is plate 66 from an edition of the Michaux / Nuttall work "The North American Sylva; or, a Description of the Forest Trees of the United States, Canada, and Nova Scotia." This important work by Francois Andre Michaux was first published in France between 1810 and 1813 with handcolored stipple engravings by the great French botanical artists P.J. Redoute, H.J. Redoute and Pancrace Bessa; it was printed and published in the United States in Philadelphia in 1857 with supplementary volumes by the American naturalist Thomas Nuttall; the plates for this section were handcolored lithographs. The plates, most of which depict a branch, flower and fruit, document in the most beautiful manner the abundance of trees native to the United States. .