Histoire naturelle des fraisiers, contenant les vues d'économie réunies à la botanique: & suivie de remarques particulières sur plusieurs points qui ont rapport à l'histoire naturelle générale

First edition of Duchesne's definitive work on the strawberry and a pioneering work in plant genetics. "As a monograph, treating garden varieties of fruits with botanical exactitude, this little work stands alone for its period. On the historical and cultural sides it is of no less interest, and in the history of strawberry literature it forms a starting point of the utmost value" (Bunyard, RHS Journal 1915, pages 422-423). Darrow calls it "the most scholarly, complete treatise ever written on the natural history of the strawberry" (page 40). With manuscript notes and dated signature of Léonce comte de Lambertye (1810-1877), this copy was probably given to him by the agricultural heiress Mme. Elisa de Vilmorin, who contributed the section of strawberries to Le Jardinier Fruitier du Muséum, where Lambertye first encountered Duchesne. Lambertye was the 19th century king of strawberries. In his Le Fraisier (1864) he devoted a chapter to the present work: "l'unique ouvrage publié en France et spécial au horticole...Duchesne connaissait a merveille l'organisation du fraisier. Il en saisit tous les characteres avec une grande finesse d'observation" (pages 132-133). His eye for detail lead him to chart the hereditary lines of the strawberry family. The yellow-flowered Indian Strawberry which is now widely naturalized in the eastern North America, bears his name (Duchesnea). Pritzel 2440; Darrow, "The Strawberry."