Paris: Auguste Ghio, n.d., ca. 1865. Illustrated with eight amusing and lovely two-toned lithographed plates of animated flowers. Six of the plates depict people transformed into flowers, with four examples on each plate. The other two plates depict scenes with an Enchanteur or Magician and human beings at the beginning and end of this fantastic tale. The story is loosely based on a variation of the German Faustus the Enchanteur legend, but it is the artistic treatment of the personified flowers that is of interest here. The flower bodies with human heads are similar to Grandville’s illustrations for LES FLEURS ANIMÉES of 1847, but here they are more defined as flowers. The artist’s signature on many of the plates is “Bertrand”; the printer is Becquet, Paris. The author was Rosine de La Salle Theodore Midy who wrote quite a number of works for children, including LA BOTANIQUE ILLUSTRÉE DE LA JEUNESSE and L’ALPHABET. The book is bound in printed floral paper covers with rusticated borders, signed L. Poguet. The covers also bear the name of the publisher Auguste Ghio, Palais-Royal. We find one copy with a different publisher (A. Courcier) at the Bibliothèque Nationale, Tolbiac; another copy is identified, but not located, in OCLC with a Library of Education publisher. Theodore Rosine de la Salle Midy was also published by Library of Education and A. Courcier - this is likely the same person. A very scarce Romantic floral fantasy. In the Style of Grandville 4to (30 x 22 cm.); 54 + (ii) pp. + 8 lithographed plates in two tints.