An educational picture book about the flowers of South Africa, dating from the time (1950) when colour printing was expensive and colour plates were often stuck into art books by hand.
Written by the director of the Botanical Garden at Cape Town, from where most of the illustrations are taken. Bilingual production with English on the left and Afrikaans on the right. Illustrations circulated in the form of cigarette cards, a joint production by United Tobacco, Westminster Tobacco and the Policansky Brothers. Illustrations in two sizes, and I don't know what you had to buy to get the large one snapped above. A pound tin of the finest chewing tobacco?
The set of cards in this particular album seems to be complete, with only the odd trace of smeared glue. And at one time in its life it had been a present for a lady living in Sheffield 7 - the place where they are now chopping all the trees down to the greater glory of the PFI. See reference 1.
All a bit old-speak, but still a perfectly satisfactory introduction to the flora of South Africa. Perhaps, when we are next on the island, I ought to pass it onto the library at Ventnor Botanic Gardens, a place where they have a lot of plants and flowers from South Africa.
PS: The Policansky Brothers were part of the exodus from Tsarist Russia triggered by the mid-nineteenth century programs. They did very well out of the burgeoning cigarette trade, but their factories were known to be pretty grim for the people who worked in them. There were regular disputes and strikes. Google knows all about them.
Reference 1: http://psmv3.blogspot.co.uk/2016/11/secret-state.html.
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