Lot 08424

De La CROIX M. D., “CONNUBIA FLORUM Latino Carmine Demonstrata, auctore D. de La Croix, M. D. Notas et observationes adjecit RICHARDUS CLAYTON, Baronettus. Bathoniae (Bath): ex Typographia S. Hazard, M DCC XCI (1779). In 8vo, p. ix,138,[2]. 

With full page engraving of the Agnus Scythicus (out of text, between p. 32-33). Latin text, with some Greek; a few of Claytons notes are in English. Partly uncut, very clean internally, apart from slight foxing.

The Vegetable Lamb of Tartary (Latin: Agnus scythicus or Planta Tartarica Barometz), is a legendary zoophyte of Central Asia, once believed to grow sheep as its fruit. It was believed the sheep were connected to the plant by an umbilical cord and grazed the land around the plant. When all accessible foliage was gone, both the plant and sheep died. Underlying the legend is the cotton plant, which was unknown in Northern Europe before the Norman conquest of Sicily. The Hunt Library Catalogue – Number 474 – devotes four pages to the earlier printings of this work – “One of the most curious little books in the Collection, or even in the demesne of bibliography”.}. [This copy has an article bound in at the rear entitled Botany; it has 127 pages, is probably late-Victorian, and I have not traced its source.]

[bound together]

–  MENIERE P., “Détermination dun Herbier attribué à J.-J. Rousseau”. Annales de la Société Linnéenne de Maine-et-Loire, 1 (1853) : 215-224. 1854.

– MENIERE P., Glanes Medicales II: Correspondance de Pline le Jeune, p. 1-28 / Glanes Medicales III: Eaux Minerales Salees, Naturelles et Artificielles, p. 1-20, 1859.

– COSSON, E. and JAMIN, P., “Notes Sur Les Cultures Des Oasis Des Ziban“, Bulletin de la Société botanique de France 2, 599–609, 1855.

Half leather of the period, marbled carton boards, some edge wear (rubbed and chipped at the edges but otherwise sound). Clean and tight inside. RARE copy.