First Edition 1798. 6 hand-coloured engraved plates, Pink stain to lower margin (affecting 3 plates). Contemporary diced calf sympathetically re-backed with title labl to spine. Slightly rubbed. Tight copy. Gilt decoration to boards. This work was important for recognising the role of women in the development of botany as a serious subject. Abbot dedicated the work to Queen Charlotte ("Patroness of the Hortus Kewensis") who was an accomplished plantswoman and he went on to write, in his preface, of "the excellence attained in this branch of science by so many of the female sex". Attractive.