Recherches sur l'Usage des Feuilles dans les Plantes, et sur quelques autres Sujets relatifs a l'Histoire de la Vegetation.
Engraved vignette on title & 31 folding engraved plates. Title in red & black. vii, [1], 343, [1] pp. Large 4to, cont. calf (corners a little bruised with one having a bit of wear), spine richly gilt, red morocco lettering piece on spine. Göttingen & Leyden: E. Luzac Sons, 1754.
First edition of this important book. “In the Recherches, Bonnet grouped five memoirs, all of which were of prime importance for plant biology: He precisely described the characteristics of the nutrition of leaves and of their transpiratory phenomena. Although he did not know the kinds of gases (oxygen and carbon dioxide) produced and absorbed by green leaves exposed to light, Bonnet made very careful observations on their production. For his masterly experimentation, Bonnet should be considered one of the first naturalists to investigate experimentally the question of photosynthesis. He studied the movement of leaves and discovered the epinastic phenomena; he observed the position of leaves on the axis of the stalk and collected a great many anatomic facts; he returned to experiments on etiolation, on the movement of the sap, and on teratology.”–D.S.B., II, p. 286.
The handsome plates were engraved by Jacob vander Schley and Wandelaer, who executed the famous anatomical plates of Albinus.
A fine and crisp copy.
❧ Pritzel 981.
Price: $1,500.00
Item ID: 2871
