Botany.- Hill (John) The Sleep of Plants, and Cause of Motion in the Sensitive Plant, Explain'd, first edition, lacking half-title, occasional trimming with loss to 1 or 2 catch words, modern half calf, [ESTC T48443, Henrey 819; Pritzel 4064], for R. Baldwin, 1757; Abhandlung von dem Schlaf Pflanzen..., first German edition, engraved folding plate, 12 woodcut vignettes, contemporary boards, edges uncut, Karlsruhe, Michael Macklott, 1776, both with H.F. Bienfait bookplates, 8vo (2)

⁂ Both rare; we can trace no example of either of them at auction. The plate in the German edition seems to be present only in the German edition.

"Hill's 'Sleep of plants…' is generally considered his most important contribution in the field of vegetable physiology. This short treatise, dedicated to the King, is written in a form of letter to Linnaeus dated 7 September 1757. It was published as a result of a series of experiments performed by Hill on Mimosa pudica, or the sensitive plant, and Abrus precatorius, which showed that the alteration of light and darkness was the cause of the movements connected with the so-called sleep of plants." (Henrey, Vol. II p.101).