TOMASI, Lucia Tongiorgi (1939-). An Oak Spring Flora: Flower Illustration from the Fifteenth Century to the Present Time. A Selection of the Rare Books, Manuscripts and Works of Art in the Collection of Rachel Lambert Mellon. Upperville, Virginia: Oak Spring Garden Library, 1997. Quarto. (11 1/4 x 9 5/8 inches). lxxiii, 427pp. With illustrations. Publisher's brown cloth, gilt decoration on upper cover, dust jacket, patterned endpapers. As new. An essential catalogue for botanists, collectors, historians, and herbalists. This work is the third in a series of catalogues describing selections of rare books and other material in the Oak Spring Garden Library, a collection assembled by Mrs. Rachel Lambert Mellon. Flora describes 111 books and prints about flowers spanning the 15th to 20th centuries by Besler, Ehret, Edwards, and Merian, among others, and includes beautiful illustrations taken from the works themselves. The list of chapters is as follows: Flowers of Devotion; Florilegia Flower Books for Collectors and Connoisseurs; The Floral Still-Life in the Flemish and Dutch Tradition; The Flower-Garden and the Rise of the 'Jardinier Fleuriste'; Flowers for Monarchs, Virtuosi and Men of Science; Flowers in the Decorative Arts and Manufacturing; Tulipomania and Other Flower Manias; Extraordinary Women Painters; A Genteel Pastime Flower Painting for Dilettantes; The Romantic Period Sentiment and Extravagance; Flowers from Distant Lands; Flower Painters of Our Time.