The Encyclopaedia of Gardening; Comprising the Theory and Practice of Horticulture, Floriculture, Arboriculture, and Landscape-Gardening, Including All the Latest Improvements; a General History of Gardening in All Countries; and a Statistical View of Its Present State, with Suggestions for Its Future Progress, in the British Isles by Loudon, John

London: Longman, Rees, et al., 1826. Fifth edition (adverts, xii, 1233, indexes), with ‘many hundred engravings on wood by Branston’. Modern dark green calf over complimentary marbled paper, gilt titles to spine and decoration. As Loudon’s lengthy title suggests and as the thickness of the volume attests, this book is one of the early attempts to capture in one place the particulars of all the various sorts of gardening. (In the preface, Loudon remarks that although much new material was added in the second edition, the book is less bulky because the less relevant information, notes and supporting details for example, has been set in noticeably smaller type. Well, it’s still a great thick book and much of the type is mighty small.) A handsome copy in quite a good-looking set of twentieth century togs.