The Natural History of the Tea-Tree; with Observations on the Medical Qualities of Tea. And Effects of Tea-Drinking

Dublin: Printed by R. Marchbank for J. Williams, T. Walker and C. Jenkins, 1772. First Irish edition, 8vo (203 x 126 mm), viii, 82, [2]pp., with the final advert leaf, hand-coloured engraved folding frontispiece of the tea tree (close-trimmed at fore margin just affecting image, re-guarded), publisher's list at end, a little light toning, endpapers renewed, contemporary tree calf, rebacked, a little rubbed. Based on Lettsom's original Latin M.D. thesis published in Leyden in 1769, this being the first Dublin edition, printed in the same year as the first London edition. One of the three "books with which he burst upon the medical and scientific world in 1772... This contained a coloured folding plate of the tea tree, reproduced from a painting by J. Miller, made for Dr. John Fothergill. The tree from which it was taken was one that flowered in the garden of the Duke of Northumberland at Sion House in October 1771. It was the first that ever flowered in Europe, and from it Lettsom was able to correct the mistake made by the great Linnaeus, who, working from dried specimens, thought it was monogynous instead of trigynous."—Abraham. Henrey, 967; Abraham, Lettsom, 1933. p.70 & 112.