"Botanical Profile. Representing the Forest Trees Along the Route Explored by Lieut. A.W. Whipple …from Fort Smith to San Pedro", U.S. War Department

This spectacular and hard to find thematic chart describes the various trees encountered by Whipple on his expedition for the railroad surveys. The profile shows the trees, or their leaves at the different elevations. A key identifies 42 different trees, including the Cereus Giganteus, or Saguaro, which was first identified only a few years earlier. There are three levels of graphical representation depicting Whipple's route containing more than 250 small images of trees drawn by J.M. Bigelow, M.D., the botanist to the expedition. This is a charming and informative graphic display of data, and is one of the first published efforts to document this information.

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Condition: B

Very crisp and bright impression. Several small intersectional fold separations and minor damp staining. A 6" tear in the left margin reaches into the chart and is closed with archival tape.