Leipzig, Christian Gottlob Hilschern, 1782. 8vo (20.0 x 12.0 cm). iv, 74, [ii] pp., 49 hand-coloured engraved plates. Contemporary half calf over speckled boards. Spine with five raised bands bordered with gilt lines, and morocco label with gilt title. Red edges.

An exceedingly rare, almost obscure, condensed translation ‘aus dem Englischen’, by a controversial Leipzig University master, historian and anglist, Johann Andreas Degenhard Pott (1759-1804), with new plates of John Hill's Vegetable System (Nissen BBI, 886), which was originally published in 26 folio volumes (a single octavo copy is known, cf. Stafleu and Cowan, 2772) and utterly rare, especially when fully coloured. The book gives guidelines for the classification of plants based on phenomenology, employing reproductive parts, etc. Published posthumously, as Hill died in 1775. Why Pott decided to translate this work, and got it published, is unknown. In his preface, the author announces further parts "Man hat zu dem Titel Beschreibung der äussern Theile der Pflanzen noch den der allgemeinen Einleitung in die Botanik hinzugefügt, wovon dieses Werk als der erste Theil anzusehen, dem sobald als möglich, ein Zweiter, der eine Beschreibung der innern Theile der Pflanzen erhält, folgen wird, und in einem verhältnismässigen Preise mit diesem erstern stehen soll", but this never happened. Botanical bookplate of Karen and Eigil Kiaer (writer of several books about gardening) on front pastedown. The first plates and a few text pages with handwritten marginalia in an old hand. Not one single auction record found by us. Neither in Nissen BBI nor Pritzel, nor in Stafleu and Cowan.