New illustration of the sexual system of Carolus von Linnaeus : comprehending an elucidation of the several parts of the fructification : a prize dissertation on the sexes of plants : a full explanation of the classes, and orders, of the sexual system : and The temple of flora, or, Garden of nature, being picturesque, botanical, coloured plates, of select plants, illustrative of the same, with descriptions

Digital Facsimile

[3], [10], [22], [11], [2] leaves, [105] leaves of plates : ill. (some col.), ports. ; 59 cm. (fol.)

Imprint, publication date, and title taken from 1807 title page bound in towards end of volume.

The work was published in parts between 1799 and 1807.

Most leaves of plates dated 1799-1807, with some leaves dated 1810, despite imprint date of 1807.

Half titles, without imprint, preceding the t.p.: [1] A British trophy in honour of Linnaeus. [2] A new illustration of the sexual system of Linnaeus.

Half-title page A British trophy in honour of Linnaeus: Tomkins ser. [and] Cooper sculp.; A new illustration of the sexual system of Linnaeus: Tomkins Script. [and] Vincent Sculpt.

No two copies are exactly alike as Thornton made up copies using different combinations of plates; "The work was advertised in 1797, and seems to have been issued in parts at twenty-five shillings each between 1799 and 1807. In its best state it is a very splendid work, .. but its bibliography is very difficult, hardly two copies being alike"--volume 56, Dictionary of National Biography, under Thornton, Robert John.

"Thornton bankrupted himself on this project, a poetic and artistic celebration of the sexual system of plant reproduction proposed by Linnaeus earlier in the eighteenth century. Thornton employed prominent artists such as Philipp Reinagle, Peter Henderson, and Abraham Pether to create paintings for the plates, and Thornton himself contributed a painting of roses. The plates were engraved by similarly distinguished firms (Ward, Earlam, and Dunkarton for the mezzotints and Stadler and Sutherland for the aquatints) and often finished by hand. Thornton described the illustrations as “picturesque,” with each plant depicted in a version of its natural setting, and he bemoaned the limits of illustrations, which “fall short in trying to represent these ravishing beauties of the vegetable world!” (from his text on tulips). But the work was under-subscribed due, according to Thornton, to war taxes which kept collectors from buying books. The original paintings for the Temple of Flora, as well as bound books and loose plates, were sold in a lottery in 1811...."--https://www.doaks.org/resources/online-exhibits/botany-of-empire/illustration-and-representation/new-illustration-of-the-sexual-system-of-carolus-von-linnaeus-and-the-temple-of-flora 

Digital master created according to Benchmark for Faithful Digital Reproductions of Monographs and Serials, Version 1. Digital Library Federation, December 2002. http://purl.oclc.org/DLF/benchrepro0212

Lib. copy bound in brownish-green morocco. Lib. copy does not have a title page: 1807 title page not at front, but it is bound in towards end of volume, nor are plates from Temple of flora, or Garden of nature; part second has no title page, but consists mainly of portraits: "title page" The sexual system of Carolus von Linnaeus towards end of Part second; volume does not contain florid dedication pages