Folio (420 x 260 mm). Engraved frontispiece, 60 engraved plates. (Some minor soiling, spotting or offsetting, ca 50 leaves with minor marginal worming.) Contemporary English blind-panelled calf (neatly rebacked and repaired). Provenance: William McElwain Talbot (gift inscription, 1978).

FIRST EDITION, intended as a companion to the Compleat Body of Husbandry (London, 1756). Issued in 60 weekly parts, each including "descriptions and cultural details concerning the various products of the garden under the time of year in which they flower or fruit, the phrase name used by Linnaeus for each plant is given, and each is referred to in its place in [Linnaeus's] sexual system, which is explained. Advice is offered on what to do each month in the kitchen, flower, and fruit gardens" (Henrey p.98).  Henrey III.776; Hunt 559; Nissen BBI 880.