Johann Georg Gmelin (1709-1758). Flora sibirica sive Historia plantarum sibiriae. Petropoli: ex Tip. Academiae Scientiarum, 1747-1769. 4 vols. Linnæana D63, v.1

Johann Georg Gmelin (1709-1758). Flora sibirica sive Historia plantarum sibiriae. Petropoli: ex Tip. Academiae Scientiarum, 1747-1769. 4 vols. Linnæana D63, v.1

Into the Hinterlands of the Mother of all Hinterlands... Johann Georg Gmelin, born into a famous family of German scientists, came to St. Petersburg at the age of 18 (in 1727) and 6 years later took off with German historian Gerhard Friedrich Müller and French astronomer Louis Delisle on a long, difficult, but ultimately extremely important journey into Siberia. With these 3 expedition leaders were 6 students; 2 artists; 2 hunters; 2 mountaineers; 4 surveyors; 12 soldiers including a corporal; a drummer; and a Pallas's owl in a pine tree. The expedition would return to St. P. ten years later and from it would come this four volume botanical work, the first large flora of Siberia and of the utmost rarity when complete, as is our copy. The last two volumes were published after Gmelin's death and in a much smaller edition. It is his most important work and comes from our collection of Linnaeana (the first two volumes are cited in Linné's Species Plantarum, 1753, the most important work in the history of botany). Gmelin's own journal of the expedition was published in four volumes in 1751 and was subsequently translated into several European languages. The grass shown here is from the genus Triticum whence cometh our Kansas Volga Geman brand of Turkey Red wheat.

Linnaeana D63, vol. 1