PUBLISHED PLATES OF SUCCULENTS, i THE "PLANTES GRASSES" 



Redoute's great work on succulents is the " Plantes Grasses" or " Plantarum Succulentarum Historia " 

 authored by A. P. De Candolle, although at least four other works contain his illustrations of succulents and, 

 ironically, by far the best of them. Publication of the *' Plantes Grasses" began serially in 1799 (or perhaps 

 December, 1798) in fascicles of six plates at a time with one page of text (rarely more) per plate. Both in pagination 

 and collation the book has been a bibliographic nightmare. Up to 1805 things went fairly smoothly and 28 fascicles 

 of the projected 50 appeared. Then a quarrel took place between De Candolle and the publisher Garnery over 

 quite another matter, with the result that no further text was forthcoming and publication ceased. For a whole 

 24 years the two were estranged, but ultimately Garnery approached De Candolle again in 1829 and suggested 

 a continuation of the work. The latter, having no wish to go on with the text, passed the task over to a younger 

 botanist, Guillemin, so that on resumption three of the descriptions were by De Candolle and the rest bore 

 Guillemin's initials. However, the continuation was brief and soon stopped altogether. Just how long it lasted, 

 or what constitutes a complete copy of the '* Plantes Grasses," has been debated ever since. What seems to 

 have happened is that a tailing off took place and in 1837 the firm of Garnery realised the end had come and decided 

 to clear their stock of existing plates. To make up saleable copies fresh title pages (dated 1837) were printed, 

 an index to fascicles 1-30, and probably a number of odd plates to complete sets. This last is clear from the very 

 different quality of paper for certain plates in copies I have examined. In a very few cases they bound in extra 

 plates which had been printed but never actually circulated. As found today the work is almost always incomplete, 

 at least beyond fascicle 28 (page 159). The last published fascicle (No. 31) is excessively rare, but since at least 

 four copies are known complete with pp. 172-7 of text, it must be assumed to have been published. The largest 

 number of plates in any copy that 1 can find recorded is 192, and outside France there is such a set in the Library 

 of the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew. These four extra plates (a fifth is merely a duplicate of p. 88) beyond the 

 published 187 are reproduced here for the first time (figs. 1-4) : I have seen no text for them or any indication 

 that it was written. 



PIERRE-JOSEPH REDOUTE— Four unpublished plates for "Plantes Grasses" (? Fascicle 32). 



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Fig- 



Piaranthus decorus (Mass.) N.E.Br. 



Fig. 2. Sesuvium portufacastrum L 



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