Carnivorous Plants of Australia Volume 3 by Allen Lowrie.

Carnivorous Plants of Australia Volume 3 by Allen Lowrie.  Hardcover book published 1998.

I’ll get to the point quickly.  Where’s volume 1 and 2 ?  This a conundrum that most booksellers at some point experience.  Indeed, I believe I’m not the only bookseller who has a few single volumes of multi volume sets sitting around waiting patiently for the others.  You find these lonesome refugees floating in the ocean of orphaned tomes and you just can’t resist…

A number of years ago I found volume 2 of “The Voyage of the Discovery” by Captain Robert F. Scott published by Macmillan 1905.  This was actually a “me” purchase, in other words, for the personal shelf not the Huc & Gabet shelf.  Anyway, I spent $20 and then found a copy of volume 1 for sale in New Zealand which I then bought and landed here for around $100… this means that I paid $120 in total.  At the time the set was worth around $200 and a quick check on the net of similar condition copies and it is still worth around $200.  I felt and still feel a little chuffed at my exercise in thrift.

So getting back to Carnivorous Plants of Australia.  Volume 3 is listed on line as being worth a bit and a quick check of the other volumes and…. I can’t find any other volumes listed for sale.  In other words this is a very rare set of books.  Still it would be nice to have the whole set and not just the third volume.  In the meantime I will try and sell the book as it is, as my shelf of orphans is a little full at the moment… the truth is, I reckon it will sell regardless.  So was I right in purchasing this single volume?  I think you know the answer.