Epic poetic tribute to the lives, loves, and reproductive capacity of plants by the grandfather of Charles Darwin. Darwin’s Botanic Garden is important for the five plates in part I which are engraved by William Blake: ‘The Fertilization of Egypt,’ engraved after the painting by Henry Fuseli, and four engravings of the Portland Vase. “The chief source of Erasmus Darwin’s literary fame during his lifetime, The Botanic Garden contains a great deal of important and frequently advanced scientific information in the nearly 300 footnotes and the 115 pages of appendices to its verses...”— The Encyclopaedia Britannica.
Provenance: Armorial bookplate of George Henry Arnold (1791-1844) to font paste-down; later bookplate of Ralph Hermon Major.