Scarce mycological work on fungi in Western Africa. The work describes 30 different species, which are illustrated by 12 beautiful and highly detailed full-page aquatint plates. The specimen were found in Sierra Leone and Guinea. Fungi from this region were only more widely studied in the second half of the 20th century, so the present work was quite early. It is also scarce, as we have only been able to trace one other copy in sales records.
Adam Afzelius (1750-1837) was a Swedish botanist. He was a so called 'Apostle of Linnaeus', a member of a group of students who carried out botanical and zoological research throughout the world under the guidance of Carl Linnaeus (1707-1778). Afzelius started working for the British Sierra Leone company in 1789 and made two expeditions to Western Africa with them, the first in 1793-1793 and the second 1794-1796. He is one of the very first European botanists known to study fungi in Western Africa. Although his notes, drawings and specimens survived the journey, his findings were only published posthumously. First in 1837, as part of a dissertation by physician Carl Mauritz Nyman (1813-1886). Azfelius' work was then published on its own in 1860, which is the present edition.
The text leaves are 3 cm shorter than the plates and are somewhat browned, leaf [3] has been restored in the inner margin, without loss of text, the first plate is stained in the upper and lower margin, without affecting the image. Otherwise in good condition. Krok, p. 7, 21b; Pritzel 32; Stafleu 34; Uellner 5; Volbracht 6; cf. Piepenbring, M., et all, Mapping mycological ignorance - checklists and diversity patterns of fungi known for West Africa, 2020.