DUHAMEL DU MONCEAU (Henri-Louis). Treatise on fruit trees; containing their figure, description, cultivation, &c. Paris: Saillant, Desaint, 1768. - 2 volumes in-4, 332 x 251: frontispiece, (2 ff.), xxix pp., (1 ff.), 337 pp., (1 f. blank), 62 plates; (2 ff.), 280 pp., 118 plates. Half calf with marbled corners, decorated smooth spine , speckled edges (19th century binding). Nissen, 550. - Plesch, 210-11. - Madeleine Pinault Sørensen, Le livre de botanique , XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles, BNF, 2008. Original edition of this remarkable work, which complements the Traité des arbres et arbuses qui se cultiulent en France en plein terre that Duhamel du Monceau gave in 1755, which was composed with the help of botanist René Le Berryais (1722-1807). Giving essential and necessary instructions to gardeners and gardening enthusiasts, it deals only with table fruit, the authors thus excluding apples and pears for cider as well as grapes that are suitable only for making wine. Madeleine Pinault Sørensen does not hesitate to consider this treatise as "the fundamental work on the subject". The fruits are studied according to their shapes, colours and flavours, parasitic insects are also discussed and 6 chapters deal with fruit tree cultivation in general. The edition is illustrated with a frontispiece engraved by Nicolas de Launay after Jacques Eustache de Sève, and 180 plates engraved after drawings by Claude Aubriet (1665-1742), Madeleine Basseporte (1701-1780) and René Le Berryais, representing the various fruits described. Copy on large paper. Damaged bindings, flattened caps, some lack of leather on the spines, blunt corners, rubbed dishes. Very good interior condition despite a wetness in the inner margin of the O book in the first volume, and a few slightly browned leaves. The boards are perfectly preserved.