Meticulously illustrated lab book by a woman studying under botanist Richard Holman at UC Berkeley, 1932
Softcover wraps with heavy-weight leaves for drawing interspersed with lined looseleaf, affixed with top and bottom brads. Quarto (11.25 x 8.75 inches). 39 labeled plates: Plant Cell (5), Plant (2), Plant Tissues (6), Stem (4), Root (2), Leaf (4), Flower (7), Fruit (3), Seed (6). 32 leaves of notes (many illustrated and using both sides) on seed experiments, some with application to agricultural practices. Graphite drawings on thick card stock in UC branded cover, fastened with brads. Very Good + with rubbing and shallow closed edgetears around the yapp edges. A few grading marks on the written notes, drawings remain clean and crisp, very fine work.
The notebook was created by Laura E. Mitchell, a student of Richard Holman. Holman was head of Botany at UC Berkeley and published modernized botany texts that related to the then-current state of agriculture. "Holman was a California- and German-trained plant physiologist and an experienced teacher. Important byproducts of this beginning course were the influential Textbook of General Botany by Holman and W. W. Robbins and, somewhat later, the Laboratory Manual by Bonar, Holman, and associate Lucile Roush. So anxious were publishers to secure a “modern” text that royalties on the textbook were bid up to an unprecedented level. Miss Roush deserves much credit not only for preparation of the manual but also for her gracious handling of the teaching assistants." (A History of Botany at Berkeley)