Logan, James | Inscribed by Humphrey Marshall

Logan, James

Experimenta et Meletemata de Plantarum Generatione … Experiments and Considerations on the Generation of Plants. London: Printed for C. Davis, 1747

8vo (205 x 132 mm, untrimmed). Light marginal dust-soiling and dampstaining to title-page with some fraying at outer corners, publisher’s advertisement inserted after the translator’s notice. Stabbed and stitched in original blue wrappers, manuscript title on front wrapper; wrappers frayed with significant losses to lower wrapper. Burgundy cloth chemise and red morocco-backed slipcase lettered gilt.

First edition in English, inscribed by Humphry Marshall, of this ''important early work on the fertilization of plants'' (Hunt). Logan was a Quaker and career statesman, and may have well become a notable botanist had he not followed a political rather than scientific path. Humphry Marshall, a Pennsylvania Quaker and botanist, was known as the ''father of American dendrology.'' His cousins, John and William Bartram, provided James Fothergill (the translator of this work) with American plants for his botanical garden at Upton, near Stratford. The inscription notes that this copy was a gift from George Logan, most likely the author’s grandson. An important association copy linking several early American Quaker botanists.

PROVENANCE

Humphry Marshall (1722–1801,American botanist; Inscribed on the title-page “Humphry Marshall His Book" and “The gift of George Logan Doc” in Marshall’s hand) — Caleb Marshall (ownership inscription dated November 16th 1834? on front wrapper)

REFERENCE

ESTC T83321; European Americana 747/103; Hunt 529; Pritzel 5582; Sabin 41796