Botanique

First edition, part I all published, 8vo (190 x 115 mm), [12], 116pp., with the half-title and half-title, 5pp. list of subscribers, original boards, uncut, spine a little chipped, but still a very nice copy. This private botanical garden was originally opened by William Curtis in 1779 at Lambeth, but due to smoke pollution, he moved the plants to the larger gardens in Brompton. According to the Survey of London, "in 1789 William Curtis, the author of Flora Londinensis and the founder of The Botanical Magazine, took over from Rubergall as tenant and moved the botanical garden which he had opened in Lambeth in 1779 to this spot. The Brompton Botanic Garden, as it was known, covered about three and a half acres, almost exactly conforming to the area which is now occupied by the streets and houses on the hospital's estate, while the remaining four and a half acres to the north were used for experiments in agriculture. After Curtis's death in 1799 his partner William Salisbury kept the garden here until 1808 when he moved it to Sloane Street, Chelsea. He continued to use the ground at Brompton for a nursery, however, until 1829 when he was succeeded there by David Ramsay, whose establishment was known as the Queen's Elm or Swan Lane nursery." Rare; JISC locating just 3 copies (Oxford, Kew and Royal Horticultural Society Libraries).