Lot 104: SINCLAIR, GEORGE.

HORTUS GRAMINEUS WOBURNENSIS: OR, AN ACCOUNT OF THE RESULTS OF EXPERIMENTS ON THE PRODUCE AND NUTRITIVE QUALITIES OF DIFFERENT GRASSES, AND OTHER PLANTS, USED AS THE FOOD OF THE MORE VALUABLE DOMESTIC ANIMALS: INSTITUTED BY JOHN DUKE OF BEDFORD. .LONDON..: B. MCMILLAN, 1816.
First edition, folio (478 x 295mm.), dedication, errata slip, 35 samples of seeds mounted on 14 leaves, 123 dried plant specimens mounted on blank numbered sheets (see references), some with contemporary hand-colouring, each with two printed caption-slips pasted in, one with the Latin binomial, the second with the English name, contemporary half morocco, spine lettered in gilt, without the plan found in some copies, about 7 individual seeds absent (as often), binding rubbed, upper hinge cracking

Nissen BBI 1850 (citing 122 plates); Stafleu TL2 12.022 (citing copies with 121 or 122 plates)

5th Earl of Rosebery, armorial bookplate

George Sinclair became gardener to the 6th Duke of Bedford, a great agrarian reformer, in 1803. "On instructions from the duke, and under the direction of Sir Humphry Davy, Sinclair conducted an extensive series of experiments on the nutritive qualities of various types of animal fodder. The results were published in 1816 in Hortus gramineus Woburnensis, an expensive folio volume containing dried specimens of the grasses. These were replaced by plates in cheaper editions published in 1825, 1826, and 1829, and in a German translation of 1826. The nutritional value of the grasses described in Hortus was assessed through comparison of their water-soluble constituents, the theory being that these formed the bulk of the feeding material" (ODNB).