CUSIN (Louis-Antoine) - ANSBERQUE (Edmé). Herbarium of the French flora. Published under the patronage of the Service du Parc et des Jardins de la ville de Lyon. Lyon, 1867-1876. - 26 volumes in-folio, 395 x 281. Green cloth, smooth spine (20th century binding). First edition of this large and rare botanical work conceived by Louis-Antoine Cusin (1824-1901), assistant naturalist at the botanical garden of Lyon, in collaboration with the veterinary doctor Edmé Ansberque (1828-1905). It is considered to be the largest printed iconography of plants in nature. Divided into twenty-six volumes published between 1867 and 1876, it includes thousands of plates of plants produced using the so-called phytoxygraphic reproduction process invented by Ansberque, which consisted of compressing the plants themselves onto a lithographic stone. Each reproduction also includes various details of the represented plant, enlarged and drawn at the bottom of the plates, most of them watercolored in color. Ansberque's ambition in using this process of phytoxygraphy, was to replace the natural herbariums whose composition and maintenance required laborious manipulations, investigations, care and maintenance, without counting considerable expenses. The association of Cusin and Ansberque, contrary to what is often written, lasted only four years, from 1867 to 1870: "this is proved by the events of the time, since on July 17, day of the declaration of war to Germany, the effective collaboration of Ansberque ceased after having produced: in 1867, the first volume; in 1868, the second and the seventh; in 1869, the third, the fourth and the fifth, and in 1870, the sixth and the eighth, and still one must make reservations for this last one because, like the sixth, it bears well the year 1870, but in overprint, Cusin having used, as he did for some others, the covers printed in advance in the period of association and which had not been employed being in excess. He corrected the vintages but neglected to cross out the name of Anbersque, until, these covers being exhausted, he had new ones printed bearing only his name" (Pouzet, Notes sur l'Herbier de la Flore Française de Cusin et Ansberque, in: Bulletin mensuelle de la Société linéenne de Lyon, n° 7, September 1932, p. 111). In order to continue the publication alone, Cusin applied for a patent in 1870 to be able to take over from Ansberque. A COMPLETE COPY OF THE VERY RARE TWENTY-SIXTH VOLUME DEVOTED TO FERNS. The vast majority of copies are missing. The whole of the illustration includes here 4849 plates. The numbering does not always follow. Such complete copies are very rare. Only plates 862 in volume five, 43 in the second part of volume eight, 116bis, 185, 188 and 199 in volume twelve and 10 in volume twenty-six are missing here. Plates 862 and 43 do not appear to have been made because, although described in the text, they also do not appear in the Harvard University Botany Library copy digitized by the Biodiversity Heritage Library. Starting with volume twenty-three inclusive, the details at the bottom of the plates are no longer watercolored. The last volume on ferns contains no title or text leaves. A good copy in a "library" binding. Tear without missing on plate 10 of the twelfth volume, without affecting the figure. Title of volume 18 torn and repaired with two large strips of tape.