Beschreibung:

BOTANICAL ALBUM -- Dr. John FOTHERGILL (1712-1780). " Hortus Siccus ". [Upton, Stratford: circa 1770]. 2° (420 x 290mm). Approximately 600 pressed flower specimens on 70 leaves, each with manuscript caption giving Latin name, arranged in alphabetical order, occasionally interspersed with blank sheets. (Very slight occasional marginal soiling, a few flowers detached from pages.) Contemporary sheep (lacking backstrip, rubbed and scuffed). Provenance : Dr. John Fothergill; Joseph Jekyll, 1827 (inscription, bought at Dr. Fothergill's sale); I. A. Hankey (inscription, "given me by Mr. Jekyll"). A RARE AND OUTSTANDING SURVIVAL OF AN 18TH-CENTURY FLOWER SPECIMEN BOOK. Dr. John Fothergill was an eminent physician and keen botanist, colleague of Sir Joseph Banks and correspondent of Benjamin Franklin He was the first graduate of Edinburgh University to be admitted to the London College of Physicians (1744), fellow of the Edinburgh college (1754), of the Royal Society (1763) and of the Royal Society of Medicine at Paris (1776). He enjoyed a similarly high reputation as a botanist, and for the superb gardens he cultivated at his estate in Upton, near Stratford. In the words of Sir Joseph Banks, "at an expense seldom undertaken by an individual . . . [Dr. Fothergill] procured from all parts of the world a great number of the rarest plants, and protected them in the amplest buildings which this or any other country has seen". Banks claimed that the collection at Upton was equalled in richness only by that at Kew, while no other garden in Europe had nearly so many scarce and valuable plants. As well as 15 permanent gardners, Fothergill employed several artists to record the new species, often on vellum: a series of 2000 natural-history drawings, including illustrations of his shell and insect collections, was bought by Catherine the Great after his death. The present pressed-flower collection was probably also formed with the intention of recording the Upton gardens for posterity. Many of the specimens were rare examples of plants newly-imported into England by Fothergill, with several from North America (mainly the east coast), a passion flower ('Flos passionis') from South America, specimens from India and from every part of Europe, as well as one rare plant from Africa ('Sesili aethiopicum'). As this album shows, Fothergill employed seed-collectors all over the known world, including many noted botanists: John Bartram and Humphrey Marshall in North America, William Brass in West Africa and Archibald Menzies in the Alps and Central Europe. He later also had plants and seeds sent to him from China, Hindustan, the East and West Indies, Siberia, the South Seas and the Cape of Good Hope. To ensure the safe transport of his seeds and plants, he printed a pamphlet entitled "Directions for Taking Up Plants and Shrubs and Conveying them by Sea", which described specially-designed dog, cat and rat-proof boxes. Once back in England, the seeds were either grown at Upton, or, initially, entrusted to specialist seed nurserymen, who also supplied Fothergill with English plants, such as Philip Miller and James Gordon Fothergill is credited with introducing about 100 new plants to England, mostly herbaceous, but also including a few trees and shrubs. His gardens at Upton finally extended to about 80 acres: 3400 species of plants were cultivated under glass, and "nearly as many more species flourished in the open ground, whilst the forest trees of North America and China, rare oaks, firs and maples, throve in the adjoining plantations" (Fox, p. 184). The present Hortus Siccus is a testament to the extraordinary range and efficient organisation of Fothergill's gardens, as well as a valuable insight into 18th-century botanical thinking, as many of the plants have since been re-classified. Due to the fragility of the specimens, very few pressed flower books of this date survive, and hardly any with such an important provenance and extensive range of pla