"New Zealand Ferns" [title stamped in gilt on upper cover]. A 4° (355 x 280mm) album, dating from c.1886, containing 22 original monochrome photographs by Burton Bros. of Maori people, mounted 2 to alternate pages, the borders and remainder of the album containing numerous specimens of ferns, some captioned in manuscript with Latin nomenclature, hinged throughout (some light marginal soiling). Contemporary red cloth gilt (extremities rubbed, some tearing to joints, lighly soiled). Provenance: "Presented to Mr. James Hamilton Merchant ... [?]Holytonn From his New Zealand Cousins Jane Hamilton Armstrong, Margaret Hamilton Thomson, Anne Hamilton Barnett, as a Token of Esteem, Dunedin, 24th July 1886" (calligraphic inscription on front pastedown).