Plant Hunting on the Edge of the World.

London: Victor Gollancz Ltd,, 1930. A renown that bestrode several continents First edition, first impression, with an exemplary example of the jacket, of this lively work recounting the author's travels to the north-east Indian frontier. In the year of publication, he was awarded the Founder's Gold Medal of the Royal Geographical Society, cementing his reputation as one of the leading botanical adventurers of his day. Plant Hunting on the Edge of the World covers Frank Kingdon-Ward's (1885-1958) expeditions to the Burmese Oberland (1926) and the remote mountains of Assam (1928) via the valley of the Seingkhu, the pass at Diphuk La, the Lohit valley, the Mishmi Hills, and the valley of the Delei. Demonstrating his "keen observation of botanical detail and grasp of plant ecology" (ODNB), he describes the plants he collected and their native habitat, from figs and ferns to rhododendrons and many primula including Primula clutterbuckii, named after his travelling companion in Assam, the Arctic explorer Hugh. M. Clutterbuck. He also describes his discovering in Burma in 1926 of the "tea rose primula" (Primula agleniana var. thearosa), writing how "I can recall several flowers which at first sight knocked the breath out of me, but only two or three which have taken me by storm as did this one" (p. 38). The work, which sold widely on its release, connects his on-the-ground observations to theories of horticultural history and celebrates "the ways in which brave plant collectors discovered strange and exotic lands and tamed their natural offerings into familiar taxonomies and potential products" (Rosenberg, p. 910). After participating in the zoological Bedford expedition, Kingdon-Ward began working for the prominent nursery Bees of Chester in 1911, journeying to China in search of rarities in the south-western mountains. In the following decades, he undertook many other expeditions to Asia, often in uncharted regions, and developed a "sure eye for flowers of garden potential" (ODNB). In these inhospitable climes, he overcame much adversity including "arthritis, bouts of deep depression, porters who were surly or drunk or absconded, the loss of his spectacles, impalement on a bamboo spike (in 1937), and (in 1950) one of the worst earthquakes on record" (ibid.). Octavo. Original black cloth, title to spine in gilt. With dust jacket. Half-tone frontispiece, 15 similar plates, 2 maps in text. Recent Japanese bookseller's ticket on front pastedown. Cloth clean, spine ends only a touched bumped, edged spotted; jacket flaps without price as issued, light nicking and soiling: a fine copy in like jacket. Troelstra, pp. 238-245; Yakushi K77. Emily S. Rosenberg, "Transnational Currents in a Shrinking World", in Emily S. Rosenberg (ed.), A World Connecting: 1870–1945, 2012, pp. 815-998.