A Concise Treatise on the Most Effectual method of Destroying Heath, and turning the soil into good pasture; with an infalliblke mode of covering rocks, barren hills etc with verdure. Also a new mode of turning waste and marshy land into good pasture.

Fountain Well, High Street, Edinburgh: Oliver & Co, 1802. [The title continues "Likewise a new method of improving moss etc, together with valuable receipts for destroying vermin on bushes, hedges, trees etc."]. Small octavo, pp xxvii,(ii), 228, a folding chart at the rear a little stained), light age-toning and foxing, with 7 woodcut chapter heads and tail-pieces, the hinge at the title page cracking slightly but still perfectly sound, bound in later green cloth. RARE. [From the library of the nurseryman Will Ingwersen, with his bookplate on the front endpaper.]. [The folding chart lists the number of plants which can be grown in an acre, either Scots or English. The title page states that Hall was late gardener and nurseryman to the Hon. Family of Cromarty. The letters V.D.M.E.D. appear after his name. Apart from that bleak information, I can find nothing further on the author. The intriguing thing is that over half the book is devoted to catalogues of florists' flowers, which is not mentioned in the title. These were obviously for sale, but prices are not given. Nor are there descriptions, but the extent of the lists makes them invaluable for cultivar names. Hyacinths, Tulips, Ranunculus, Anenomes, Bulbous Iris, Auriculas, Carnations, Pinks, finishing with evergreen and flowering shrubs, and a few seeds. Hyacinths, by no means the longest list, contains over 300 cultivar names alone. Whilst it is perhaps not surprising that Harman Payne failed to spot this book for his Florist's Bibliography, it is strange that it also evaded the eagle eye of Ray Desmond, who fails to mentiong the author in his Dictionary.]. First Edition. Cloth. Good.