Nürnberg, Christian de Launoy seel[ig] Erben, [1763]-1764-[1766]. Folio (40.2 x 25.8 cm). Title page with motto on verso, half-title with motto on verso; 159 pp. [(iv), 8, (iv), 72, 40, (vi), 26]; 51 engraved plates [numbered I-V, IIb (all showing microscopes); I-IV, A-E, V-XXX (mainly showing flowers); 1-10 (mainly showing insects)], all in fine, original hand-colouring; and decorated with several large, finely engraved headpieces. Contemporary mottled calf. Spine with seven raised, gilt-lined bands; compartments rich gilt with floral vignettes and corner pieces; brown morocco label with gilt title. Board edges gilt-rolled. Marbled pastedowns. All edges red.

First edition of a seminal publication by the German botanist, entomologist, microscopist and stable master of the Margrave of Bayreuth, Wilhelm Friedrich von Gleichen-Rußwurm (1717-1783). The fern genus Gleichenia was named in his honour. The very large and very finely coloured engravings show various types of 18th-Century microscopes, the sexual organs of many different plant species, and insects involved in the fertilisation - all in in great detail. In the rear is an Anhang vermischter Beobachtungen, with its own title. This part contains the plates numbered 1-10 with several quite exquisite illustrations of insects. The title page is dated 1764, but Stafleu and Cowan show that it was published in instalments, starting in 1763, and the Anhang perhaps not published until 1766. An identical second edition, under a different title, was published in 1790, and a French translation in 1770. However, this is the rare first edition. Provenance: on the first (general) title page inscribed and dated in an old hand "ad privatum E..., 1766". Last page with some minor staining. Boards with many markings, spine bands and ends rubbed; tail of spine with a small, old reback, front board with two old repairs; some small, very light, stains in the lower margin of the first blank, title, and last two text leaves. In all a remarkably clean copy, with strong impressions and bright colouring, in a beautiful contemporary binding with many signs of use, which gives it character. Horn-Schenkling, 7960; Nissen BBI, 716; Stafleu and Cowan, 2037. Not in Nissen ZBI.