‎DARWIN (Erasmus)‎
‎Phytologia or the philosophy of agriculture and gardening with the theory of draining morasses and with an improved construction of the drill plough‎

‎Dublin, Byne, 1800, un volume in 8 relié en pleine basane marbrée, dos orné de filets dorées (reliure de l'époque), (petit accroc à la coiffe, quelques rousseurs), 8pp., 556pp., (6), 12 PLANCHES dépliantes‎

Reference : 1539

‎---- FIRST DUBLIN EDITION ---- BEL EXEMPLAIRE ---- "A continuation of Erasmus Darwin's discussion of biological evolution begun in Zoonomia". (DSB) ---- "Erasmus Darwin's third major work, Phytologia (1800), is primarily an agricultural treatise... Although the book deals with such practical matters as manures, draining and watering of land, plant diseases and how to cure them, and reform of the linnaean system of classification, Darwin considered it to be essentially a continuation and application to plants of the discussion of biological evolution that he had begun in Zoonomia... The philosophical matter of Phytologia is of particular interest : in it Darwin not only recommended a limesulfur mixture as an insecticide, but also proposed ecological controls, suggesting that insect pests might be limited by increasing the numbers of their enemies - for exemple, the larvae of the aphidophorus (ichneumon) fly might be kept down by encouraging the breeding of the hedge birds, larks and rooks which feed on them...". (DSB III p. 579)**1539/A1‎