Botany.- Linden (J., editor) Lindenia. Iconographie des Orchidées, 17 vol., 799 plates only (of 813, plate 532 loose), all, but plate 525 chromolithographed (as issued), tissue-guards, lacking last 4 parts of vol.17 (as often), the odd finger soil, occasional scattered foxing to most vol., original printed wrappers of vol.17 parts 1-8 bound in vol.17, near-uniform contemporary half cloth, spines lettered in gilt, some light bumping and scuffing, [Nissen BBI 2348; Stafleu & Cowan 4628], folio, Ghent, 1885-1903.

⁂ One of the rarest iconographies published on orchids. Plates are numbered 1-794, 796-800 as plate 795 was never published. The last 4 parts of vol.17 are quite rare, with only a few being issued.

Jean Jules Linden (1817-98) botanist, horticulturalist, and explorer; he pursued rigorous fieldwork on orchids, and he established the methods for their cultivation. Lindenia was begun in collaboration with his son Lucien and his colleague Emile Rodigas. After Linden's death, Lucien oversaw the continuation of the series.

The plates were lithographed by G. Severeyns and P. de Pannemaeker, the best Belgian lithographers of the period. Most of the plates were drawn by A. Goosens who later collaborated with A.C. Cogniaux on an equally large project the 'Dictionnaire iconographique des orchidées'.