LETTERS ON THE ELEMENTS OF BOTANY, ADDRESSED TO A LADY; (Translated into English, with Notes, and Twenty-Four Additional Letters, Fully Explaining the System of Linnaeus by Thomas Martyn)

London, England: B. and J. White at Horace's Head, Fleet-Street, 1796. Fifth Edition. Leather-bound. Good Plus. Small quarto, Contemporary mottled calf measuring 8 1/2" x 5 3/8". Front and rear boards each double-ruled in gilt with a continuous gilt device (appearing like tiny life preservers strung upon a striped rope), and a contrasting, gilt-on-black title label, perhaps a replacement (?). Inner dentelles surrounding the front and rear pastedown endpapers. Endpapers decorated with one of the loveliest marbling we've ever seen -- a three-color tree design branching over thestone marble design, which itself looks more like an electronic microscopic view of tree cells.

Previous owner's name Mary ______, with the date of 1800 below half-title. Fold-out chart ("The Outlines of Linnaeus's System of Vegetables"Rear board separating but still held quite firmly by its three cords. Blemish to front endpaper. Some very modest penciled "x" marks and several handwritten notations to margins.Some unobtrusive toning to some pages in last third of book.
503 pp. plus indices of English names (12 pp.); Latin names (12 pp.); Natural Tribes or Orders of Plants Mentioned or Explained in the foregoing (?) Letters (1 pp.); Index of Terms Casually Explained in the Course of This Work ( 4 pp.).